Day 120 Don’t assume

ITEM 120 OF 365 LESS THINGS
Grooming Set

This grooming set is a prime example of where communication is important when it comes to not cluttering up your home.

I assumed that this was a gift to my husband from perhaps his grandmother and therefore  had sentimental value as well as being functional. This week on a whim I took them out of the laundry cupboard and asked my husband if he still wanted them. His response was “No I don’t,  I thought you used them”.

So they have been sitting in cupboards moving from one house to another for heaven knows who many years and nobody has used them in all that time. Needless to say they won’t be residing in our house any longer.

It just proves the odd little saying – ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME.

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Day 117 Snow Gear

I finally got all the snow clothing out of the cupboard on the weekend (one of those jobs I have been avoiding) and put it all on eBay.  All that is except the pair of men’s pants that had a hole in the leg and a ripped lining – I don’t know why I hadn’t already tossed them out- and 2 pair of goggles that the foam fining had perished while stuck in the cupboard unused.

The auctions are going well 5 out of 10 things already have bids on and anything that doesn’t sell will be going to the thrift shop.

While writing this I realised that I forgot to put the other pairs of goggles on eBay so I had better take care of that shortly. I think there may be another jacket in my son’s closet as well so I have better check that out.

That certainly freed up some room in one cupboard.

I don’t know why I had been avoiding this job for so long but it is a good thing I decided to do it now because Australia is about to move into winter and the ski season will be starting soon so now is the perfect time to put ski gear on eBay. That is a good tip to remember – Consider the seasons when selling on eBay some things will sell better at certain times of the year.

ITEM 117 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These are the pants I had to toss because they were torn.

Snow Pants

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Day 111 Single function gadgets

The word gadget alone conjures up images of items with more of a novelty factor than any real practical use and for the purpose of this post it is meant to do so.

How many things on your “really don’t need or use” list come under the Single Function Gadget title. For example, my contribution for today to my 365 things are a set of plastic ice cubes. I am sure they were bought for their novelty factor but after using them both to keep liquids cool and in an icepack I really didn’t feel that they radiated the cold as well as the real thing.  I could find no science to back up my claim here but never-the-less I don’t find them useful and they are out of here.

Another thing I found quite useless are those silicon cup cake baking cups. What a pain they are to get clean. I soon went back to using the disposable paper cups.

If anyone out there has a product that they have found to be next to useless please contact me and I will make of page of  Single Function Gadgets as a warning to other innocent consumers.

ITEM 111 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Plactic Ice Cubes

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Day 109 The linen closet

When retrieving my vacuum cleaner from the linen closet this week on cleaning day I paid a little attention to the number of towels on the shelves that I really don’t ever use. They were sitting there taking up valuable space simply because they were still in reasonable condition or I thought they might come in handy one day for rags or if some incident happened where I would need to mop up a large spill that I wouldn’t want to put in my washing machine.

After giving it some rational thought I decided three things…

  1. since I have discovered microfiber I would never use lint filled old towels for any cleaning job.
  2. the likelihood of any incident occurring that required such a large mop up other than a pipe bursting (that only contained clean water) was highly unlikely.
  3. I would rather be able to fit the useful towels easily on the shelf than have to cram them in with half a dozen towels that I never use.

So goodbye unused towels, hello to more cupboard space.

ITEM 109 OF 365 LESS THINGS
Towels

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Day 106 Giving back

Today’s item is a great example of giving back. My mother-in-law gave me this bead spinner because she knows I do a lot of beading and she thought I would find it useful. I think she may have purchased it at a garage sale or the like especially for me.

It seemed like a great little gadget and I was most appreciative of her kind gesture.  Unfortunately after experimenting with it a number of time I found it did not live up to the expectations I had of it to make threading beads quicker and easier.

This item could then have easily been relegated to the “well I can’t get rid of it because my mother-in-law gave it to me” status but I decided that since my mother-in-law is a reasonable person I would just tell her that I hadn’t found it all that useful and ask if she would like me to return it to her.

She was very accepting of the situation and said she would be happy to have it back as she could sell it at her stall at the next doll enthusiast show. Everyone was happy.

Now that wasn’t so hard and it just goes to prove that if you have a good relationship with a person trivial little matters like this will not spoil your rapport with each other.

Thanks Barb, if you are reading this, it’s good to know that after 23+ years we still get on as well as ever.

ITEM 106 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Bead Spinner

Colleen’s Helpful Hint of the Day

To get pen marks out of clothing. Spray with hairspray before putting the the wash.

(Always test fabric in inconspicuous place before using this method)

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Day 103 Justifying

There are a lot of ways we go about trying to justify why we should keep the clutter that we have around out homes. Here are a selection:-

  • I may use it some day.
  • I am sure it will come back into fashion.
  • So and so gave this to me.
  • If I keep it long enough it may increase in value.
  • I might loose weight and it will fit me again.
  • It has sentimental value.
  • Everyone has one of these.
  • I paid a lot of money for it so I am not getting rid of it until I get my money’s worth out if it.
  • Maybe the kids will want it when they grow up.
  • Maybe the kids will want to give it to their kids when they grow up.
  • I may want to read that again later on. (when I have owned it long enough that I can’t remember reading it in the first place).
  • It is a piece of history.
  • …and the list goes on.

You do need to remember to weigh these pros against the cons before making a rational decision. Here are some of the cons.

  • I already have five of these.
  • I have no-where to store this.
  • I can no longer see the top of the dining room table.
  • I may lose a few pounds but this will probably no longer be in fashion then anyway.
  • I can always borrow this book from the library if I want to read it again.
  • Maybe I could fetch a good price for this if I sell it since I don’t use it anymore.
  • We can no longer have visitors because we can barely get through the door of the spare room because it is so full of clutter (not always a bad thing ha ha)
  • If this does come back into fashion it will probably be inappropriate for my age by then.
  • On the rare occasion I need one of these I could borrow one from so and so.
  • It will deteriorate over time so someone might as well be using it now while it is still useful.
  • The kids would have taken it when they left home if they wanted it.
  • I am not going to forget the good times we had if I get rid of this.
  • Everyone has one of these but I never use mine.
  • and once again the list goes on…

So please consider both sides of the situation before you decide what stays and what goes and try to be neutral about it. You will never clear the clutter if you keep justifying keeping things.

The item making the trash bin today are two old magnetic photo albums. These things can be a killer of your precious photos and I am working on removing all of my old photos from this kind of album.

Albums

Colleen’s Helpful Hint of the Day

To save water when shaving. Part fill your bathroom basin with a little warm water. Use this water to wet your hands and wipe over your legs making them damp. Use a little body lotion or moisturiser and rub over damp legs. Now shave your legs, rinsing the razor occasionally in the basin of water. When you are done use a damp face cloth to wipe your legs and allow to air dry the rest of the way. Now you have nice smooth legs and they are moisurised as well.

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Day 98 Garden Downsize

I live in a townhouse so I don’t have much to care for in the way of garden or lawn but for what I do have I am endevouring to minimalise the amout of equipment and time required to maintain it.

I only purchase/aquire plants that can survive my neglect, requiring little watering or pampering in any way and hardy enough to cope with the varying climate we can get here at times.

When we first moved into the property we owned a lawn mower and an edge trimmer which seemed a little overkill for a lawn 5m long by 1.5m wide so my husband bought a rotory hand mower and gave the other items to charity.

After using the hand mower a couple of times I decided that was hard work so the next time the gardener that maintains the common areas of the property came to do his work I asked him what he would charge me to trim the edges and cut the lawn in the back of my home. He said he would do it for a carton/slab of beer at Christmas each year. “BARGAIN” deal done.

As a result of exploring options and choosing wisely when adding plants I now have a garden that requires little maintenance or equipment. Today I will send the last of the redundant gardening equipment that has been lurking in the garage to the give-away pile.

I might add we have no intention of ever again living in a propery that has big lawns and gardens so I don’t expect ever to have to replace the gardening equipment that we have purged over that last couple of years

Garden ItemsColleen’s Helpful Hint of the Day

If you should accidently write on a whiteboard with perminent marker just scribble over it with the whiteboard marker and it should rub right off.

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Day 96 Sunscreen multiplies and expires

Although my toiletries are one of those things I have well and truly under control, sometimes certain items do seem to multiply and then reach their expiry date while I’m not looking.

Sunscreen is one of those items that tends to do this due to a number of reasons like…

  • An unplanned trip to the beach where a “pink pelt” like me has to lather on the sunscreen or that pink soon turns to blistered red so you duck to the nearest convenience store to buy a bottle.
  • A planned trip to the beach where you forget the sunscreen and rather than go all the home you are forced to buy another bottle.
  • A family picnic to the park where you forget the sunscreen and you borrow someone Else’s bottle, forget to give it back and can’t remember which family member owed it.

Needless to say now you have four bottles of sunscreen, two of which have passed their used by dates, taking up space in the bathroom cabinet.

This is only one small item but the same story applies to lots of different things. For example…

  • The extra suitcase you bought while on holidays in America to bring home all the stuff you bought because things are so cheap over there
  • The extra esky (Cooler) you bought last Christmas because you had a big family BBQ at your house and didn’t have enough room in the fridge
  • The snow chains you had to buy because of unseasonal weather when visiting the mountains last April.

Need I go on.

The next thing you know you think you have outgrown the house you live in and start looking for another “dump site” with a bigger garage. It used to amuse me when I lived in the USA how many cars in our neighbourhood were parked on the street or in the driveway because the garage was full of other “stuff”.

Check around your house today and find one of these things and relegate it to the “get rid of” pile. Just remember you always have the option of borrowing things when in need, then you just give them back when you are done.

Two bottles of sunscreen past their used by date
Expired Sunscreen

Colleen’s Helpful Hint for the Day

A slightly damp microfibre cloth is great for removing deoderant stains, dust and other accidental marks from your clothes. I keep one handy in my bathroom cabinet just for this purpose.

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Day 94 When a bargain isn’t a bargain

How many of you have things lingering in your home that were bargains too good to pass on.
You know…

  • that pair of shoes that really are a size to big but they were only $10 (you wore them once and they gave you such terrible blisters that you will never wear them again)
  • the set of cutlery “they were just about giving away” that will come in handy when you have a dinner party for 12 even though your dining suite won’t accommodate more than 8.
  • the tent that was half price at the camp shop (when you actually went there to buy a travel jacket) that you had to have for when you go camping one weekend soon (that was 4 years ago)
  • that DVD you got for $5 on the clearance heap that you barely managed to tolerate the first ten minutes of which has been relegated to the deepest depths of the DVD drawer

Need I go on? There are no end of stories like these that I have heard or fallen prey to. There is a lesson to be learned here.

A bargain isn’t a bargain if you get little or no use out of it.

These things become like a house guest that won’t leave who’s just taking up space and not paying rent. You know they are there but you can’t bring yourself to tell them to leave but you feel guilty about letting them stay every time you come across them.

A couple of ways to avoid this trap are:-

  • Don’t read the special catalogues
  • Don’t check out the clearance bins in the shops
  • Only go to the shop if there is something specific you are shopping for and stick to the plan.
  • Never stop at garage sales
  • Avoid seasonal sales

Sorry to all you shopaholics out their but admitting you have a problem is half the cure.

This is the DVD I mentioned above. Sorry Adam I really am a fan but not of this one. I love Mr Deeds though.
DVD

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Day 93 Your views on decluttering

Today I just wanted to point out that just below the photo for each days Post there is a tiny word “comments”, if you click on that you have the opportunity to leave feedback,  share your stories or even mention an area of decluttering you might like help with.

I would love to hear from you and appreciate your tips and views.

Yesterday I had a comment from Janetta who has been inspired to start decluttering again. She is even reducing by  a bag of things some days because they are only small items.  As I have said before “Every Little Thing Counts” whether alone or by the bag.

Below is a list of small thing that I used today to make a Reusable Car Bingo Game for my niece and nephews.

  • 2 Laptop Screen Protectors
  • 2 sheets of chipboard
  • 3 Sheets of coloured paper
  • 4 whiteboard markers
  • Screen clean sachet
  • Plastic Box

These were all excess items and resources taking up space in our office/craft room. The screen protectors were from a laptop we no longer have. The whiteboard markers were from a stockpile no doubt at risk of going dry and useless in the drawer waiting to be used.

I am sure the kids will be thrilled with the result and I am happy to have purged yet a few more things.

Here is the photo of the Bingo Game I made for the kids.
Car bingo

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