I have never encountered a kitchen that wasn’t designed for clutter. There are nearly always cupboards in them that are too deep or high for practicality. These spaces are designed to store seldom used items. Everyone knows that the things you use all the time are the ones that are in the easy to reach places. In the fronts of the deeper cupboards and in the ones at the most convenient height. So I think it is entirely possible that everything else, at the very least, boarders on clutter and in most cases is clutter.

Yesterday I was doing some reorganising of my craft supplies and tools. Part of my plan was to rehouse some of them to the cupboard below the kitchen bench where I do my crafting. In order to do this said kitchen cupboard also needed rearranging. Most items in this cupboard are used regularly, so needed to be within easy reach. So to accommodate craft supplies I needed to install an extra shelf. In the end I was left with three shelves with most items neatly arranged to the front and nothing much in the back.

This is what got me thinking that kitchen cupboards really are designed for clutter. How much stuff do you have lingering in the far reaches of your kitchen cupboards that are rarely if ever used? How much would it really matter if you decluttered these items? And I mean, really matter. How much, just in case or, I use this only on special occasions or I used to use that, stuff are you hanging on to in your kitchen? Run a really critical eye over the murky depths of those cupboards this week and see if you can find at least a few things that you could happily live without.

To put things into perspective, these shelves are two feet (60cm) deep. The plates on the top shelf take up less than half of the shelf. And I am also considering decluttering some of those plastic containers. Although they all get used, they rarely all get used at once.

Today’s Mini Mission

Inspect the tools stored in your garage or other work space. There are usually a few that are a rarely if ever used. Declutter at least one.

Eco Tip for the Day

Save water and electricity ~think twice about how often you really need to wash your clothes and linens. Underpants and perhaps socks are the only clothing item the really need to be washed after one use. Most other clothing items are usually clean and fresh enough to wear twice unless badly soiled the first time round or if the weather is extremely warm and/or humid. Sheets need only be washed once a week at most while towels can last up to a week provided they are air dried between use.

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

All that “I might need it one day!” clutter is about control. Control over your future, a future that may never unveil itself. A future created in your own mind that won’t allow you to relinquish items you don’t have a use for right now, probably never will and in all honesty, although used in the past, were never really needed even then.

What tragic outcome would ensue in the future if, today, you decluttered that spare potato peeler? If you got rid of that ever growing pile of ragged bath towels you save in case of a huge spill? If you put all those magazine clippings in the recycling bin that you have been saving to reference when “needed”? If you donated all those material scraps that you might use some day to a craft group who will use them now?

Would the world come to a screaming halt sometime in the future due to these scenarios and any other that come to mind? NO is the answer to that question. “But what if, later, I can’t afford to replace such articles?” I hear you say. And I reply… “STOP and really think whether this item is really even necessary in the first place. A potato can be pealed with a knife, a good towel can be washed and reused after cleaning up a spill, any information clipped from a magazine can be easily accessed via the internet (and more easily for that matter), and material scraps really didn’t matter that much in the first place. Apply this thinking to anything that you feel is contributing to the clutter in your home and see what rational conclusions you come to.

And while you are at it think what immediate positive impact decluttering all those unused items will have on the appearance, feel, ease of organising and cleaning  and the comfort level of your home and then explain to me why you are still holding on.

Let go of a little control and live for today. At the moment the clutter is controlling your life, not the other way around. So do something about it. You might be surprised at how liberating relinquishing control can be.

Today’s Mini Mission

Have a good look in your kitchen cupboards and drawers. This is usually a hotbed of only slightly useful stuff that you could declutter.

Eco Tip for the Day

As adults it is our job to teach our children to conserve power and water. If you raise your children with good habits now conservation will come naturally to them when they become the adults themselves.

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

Deb J

60 Spools of thread & 100 skeins of embroidery cotton

We have talked about this before but I wanted to bring it up again.  This is another area I would like to declutter but there is resistance.  It’s all that thread and other sewing supplies.  I don’t know how well you can see this in the pictures but Mom has about 60 spools of thread and about 100 various colors of embroidery floss.  I can see having all of these when she used to sew and I cross stitched.  Now she barely gets something hemmed and I haven’t cross stitched in 10 years or more.

Why do we need all this?  Mom says, “We might need a particular color some day and they are hard to find.  Plus we have already paid for them.”  I can’t seem to get across the idea that over time colors change and I doubt we will get any clothes in the colors of most of those thread colors and little in the way of cross stitch or anything else in the colors of the floss.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they have faded over time too.

Do you have anything like this that you are dealing with?  

Today’s Mini Mission

 Choose three books from your book collection. Declutter the one least likely to be reread.

Eco Tip for the Day

This tip was something that Wendy F brought to my attention. Use the fabric from old mens’ shirts to make handkerchiefs. You will be repurposing the fabric in the shirt and saving paper used to make tissues.

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

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

One of my readers commented this week that she often finds herself trying to rationalise keeping items rather than letting them go. I have two pieces of advice about this behaviour.

1. If you find yourself doing this just put the item aside and move on to something that is easier for you to declutter. My experience has been that we get better at this decluttering thing with experience. The experience of performing it and the pleasant experience of realising the advantages of owning less stuff. I don’t need to repeat again what they are. There is nearly always something that we a willing to let go of rather than waste time procrastination over the stuff we aren’t.

2. Stay focused on the object of this exercise ~ Decluttering. If you feel the need to declutter then it is best to carry it through to the best of your ability. Take your time and, once again (and I can’t say this enough times), work on the easiest stuff at all times. The harder stuff becomes easier eventually. Focus more on what you are gaining than what you are giving up. The desire to have excess and acquire more stuff is a fools game, be determined to give it up. Especially if it is affecting you negatively and loved ones around you. One of the greatest joys of decluttering for me was losing the desire to acquire. That doesn’t mean I never acquire anything I fancy, I just don’t do it as a recreational sport on a regular basis.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item made from fabric ~ Clothes, linen, carpets, blankets, pillows ought to be items easy enough to find. I have something in mind for this one this week.

Eco Tip for the Day

When shopping, if you have the option, say no to a receipts. Of course only on things you will have no need to return. I do this at cafe’s, grocery stores, service stations and any situation where it is a choose and use up purchase.

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

Today’s mini mission is ~ Declutter one hand powered kitchen gadget you don’t use enough to warrant wasting the space on. So let me give you some examples of the things like this that I can remember decluttering over my four year mission. Hopefully that will give you inspiration to let go of a few yourself.

Flour Sieve ~ I had had my flour sieve since before I was married. It used to belong to my Grandmother. I used it most times when I baked. However in a mission to minimise and simplify in my kitchen I decided that I didn’t need this item. I already had three progressive sized multipurpose sieves that I used for all other sieving need. I figured these could suffice to take care of the flour as well.

Garlic Press ~ To begin with I usually bought crushed garlic in a jar. But then I discovered that fresh garlic was much better. By this time I had already decided that my garlic press didn’t work all that well and was difficult to clean. I am sure there are better ones on the market but instead I chose to use the internet to get tips on chopping and mincing garlic with a knife and never found the need again for a gadget to do this task with.

Hand Powered Rotary Mixer ~ This one was easy because I hardly ever used it because I had long ago decided that I preferred other methods of whisking and mixing ingredients. This one was too laborious and besides I rarely bake these days.

Box Style Microplane Grater ~ Once again, this item was rarely used. It was cumbersome and bulky. I had two or three other flat microplane graters to perform any task this one could, and they took up less room. I sold this one on ebay.

Apple Corer ~ A knife can do this job quite well and since I wasn’t coring a multitude of apples everyday then I didn’t need a faster method. Out it went.

Gas Stove Igniter ~ I hadn’t had a gas stove in at least 15 years or a BBQ in about 8 years so I sure didn’t need this gadget. I now have a gas stove again but it has inbuilt igniters. So no regrets there.

A Rotary Grater ~ I must have had some sort of obsession with graters at some point. This one was only being used for one purpose in the end. That was for thinly slicing apple for making Polish Apple Pancakes. I only make these every now and again and slicing the apples is a job easily done with a knife. That freed up a good bit of space in my utensils drawer.

I think this is enough examples to give you the idea of my thinking when it came to letting go of these items. I could have kept them, sure, and I probably would have continued to use them occasionally, but my goal was to free up space. With less items in my kitchen to choose from I didn’t didn’t find preparing food any harder in fact I found working in my kitchen more efficient, therefore actually saving me time. With less stuff to dig through to find the items I needed I simply wasted less time.

From my kitchen, I also decluttered numerous crockery items, utensils, baking trays, glassware and plastic storage containers. The more I removed the more pleasant the working conditions in this area became. And now that I have a slightly smaller kitchen I am still on the look out for more items I don’t really have a need for. My goal now is to make a little space in my kitchen cupboards so I can move some of my most frequently used craft items closer to the kitchen bench where I do my crafting these days. This will make crafting more efficient as well.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one hand powered kitchen gadget you don’t use enough to warrant wasting the space.

Eco Tip for the Day

Subscribe to your local government newsletter, if they have one. This will keep you abreast of the chemical and electrical recycling opportunities they have on offer. I read my Newcastle City Council newsletter this week and discovered dates for these and other drop off days coming up soon in my area.

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

Deb J

I think it was two years ago when I talked about all the jewelry we have.  We went through it all and got rid of about half.  We still have too much in my mind.  Most of it is never used.  Some because we have nothing it really looks good with and some because it just isn’t stuff I like.  I’ve thought about suggesting to Mom that as we find new clothes we make sure they will go with those pieces we really like.  

The jewelry in question

Part of the problem is that in Indiana we had real winter and we wore sweaters and turtle necked shirts that many of the necklaces went with.  We also wore suits or dresses where a broach was a finishing touch.  Now we have warmer temps here in Arizona in the “winter” and seldom wear a sweater or turtle neck.  Many of the necklaces aren’t shown off if worn against bare skin.  Putting one of the broaches on any of our blouses would look silly because they are too heavy for the materials.  

Here we are with all of this nice jewelry and no place to wear it.  I say get rid of it.  Mom’s says we might want it someday.  What do you think?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter old keys that you no longer remember what they belonged to.

Eco Tip for the Day

This tip was something that Wendy F brought to my attention. Use the fabric from old mens’ shirts to make handkerchiefs. You will be repurposing the fabric in the shirt and saving paper used to make tissues.

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 catch the train a lot and love nosing at the back of people’s homes that we pass en route.

Doodle

I can’t help myself from thinking over some of them, that half an hour of putting things away at the onset of autumn would make such a difference to the look of a garden that never look their best during the wet dull days of winter. Of course, fortunately loads of strangers can’t see my back garden from a train 😀

We only have a small back garden – a very typical Victorian ‘backyard’ with high 8ft walls.

The History Bit

In the UK, the Victorian period is so named after the period that Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 – 1901. (Great Great Grandmother to our current Queen Elizabeth II).

This was a period of mass movement to urban living. In the town I live in, the population quadrupled during that period and there are many many streets of terrace housing, back to back (where gardens back on to the terrace behind you with no other access other than through your own back door.)

You can often find traces of the old outdoor privy and in our’s also the original brick floor of the coal house.

*

Our backyard is a fairly typical 10ft x 16 feet wide (the width of the house) and doesn’t have any soil, just paving.

When I first moved here, on my own 12 years ago, this was my first garden and I fondly imaged that I would prove to be a keen gardener, despite never having shown a flicker of interest before. In fact I remember on first meeting the people who were eventually to become my in-laws, shortly after I moved, proudly talking about my ‘interest’ in gardening, lol.

My Garden Clutter

Over the years I seemed to have collected a lot of pots (as the only means of growing plants), in part from my now in-laws full of plants but also my own annual spring burst of enthusiasm: a triumph of hope over realism.

Most died due to a combination of summer neglect and a massive snail and slug problem. I finally admitted to my self that the idea of me being a gardener   and collecting all the paraphernalia that comes with such an interest was typical aspirational hording!

I’ve stopped pretending.

Fortunately, my husband seems to have developed an interest in the garden in the last year or two but he has bought all his own pots to suit his fruit tree passions. So we’re left with a plethora of spare pots that won’t get reused.

A few weeks ago, we had a typical British trigger for de-cluttering the garden – a weekend of spring sunshine! While he happily tackled vigorous pruning I felt the urge to declutter.

Pots gone via Freecycle

My husband is never keen on de-cluttering and seemed resistant at first to the idea, but I was greatly surprised how many he was able to let go of: I did my usual, “you c
an keep as many as you like, but let’s go through them one by one and just give me a quick yes or no as to whether you can let it go”.

By removing the stress by ensuring he understood I wouldn’t be pressuring him or disapproving of his choices he said “yes it can go” to nearly every one.

To the right is a picture of many of the pots we got rid of via freecycle that weekend

How’s the clutter in your garden?

I received an email some time ago from an online magazine, called Get Organized, asking if they could publish an article that they had seen on my blog. The article was written by Moni, one of our regular readers and commenters. She has been a big part of our discussions here at 365 Less Things for quite a while now and has written an article for us every now and again. She was happy for them to publish the article in their magazine and I received a follow up email last week saying that it had gone to print.

Below is a copy of the article in the magazine and I have also included the original article for you to reread. I figured if the magazine thought it was worth printing then it sure was worth republishing here. Perhaps you would also like to take a look at Get Organized for yourself. Enjoy.

KEEPING THE STANGEST OF THEINGS by Moni Gilbert

I shudder at the idea of going back to my old ways of having stuff, more stuff, stored stuff, collected stuff and yet more stuff…..and then being very surprised that the house is full of stuff!

But in spite of all that, I still keep the strangest of things. I don’t know why, there is no logic to it, but I have difficulties getting rid of empty cardboard boxes and shopping bags, especially if they are from particularly nice clothes store or from a surf wear shop.

There is a wee corner of my brain that insists cardboard boxes are useful. Maybe they are, maybe they’re not, but I can get as many as I want any time that I want from my local Pak’n’Save. I have no plans to store anything and no need to carry anything in the foreseeable future but I faithfully stack a small pile of them in the garage until finally the rational part of my brain turns up a few days later and breaks them down for recycling.

Shopping bags. I’m not talking about supermarket bags or ones from the mainstream stores, but the rather nice looking ones. I carefully fold them and place them inside a bag in my craft cupboard. There is only ever 5-10 sitting there and every so often I decide that today is the day I will declutter them, but it just doesn’t happen. The only reason I can think of is that when I was a girl my mum used to do the same thing.

At the time the economy was suffering under high inflation, extreme interest rates and a government introduced compulsary car-less day once a week to combat fuel costs. Our town was small and this was before the era of cheap ‘Made In China’ clothing, so mum sewed what she could of our clothing and we accepted and donated hand-me-down clothes, it didn’t bother us and was widely acceptable in our community.

So a pretty shopping bag represented luxury and they were probably still a new thing as I recall a drawer full of folded up paper bags used for everything from lining baking tins to art projects to lighting the fire to holding rubbish. Wherever possible, we passed on our hand-me-down clothes in a nice plastic carrier bag with a shop logo on it. Why I don’t know, as it was only being carried from house to car and car to house and wouldn’t actually be seen by the greater public, but it seemed to be the tradition.

I mentioned this story to a friend over the weekend and she got a smile on her face and told me that she keeps the paper flour sacks, to line baking tins for making fruit cake. The thing is that she has never made a fruit cake. Her mother and grandmother were fruit cake legends but the baking gene completely skipped her, but she still feels a need to keep these paper flour sacks.

Another friend religiously saves seeds from pumpkins and dries them on the kitchen window sill as her mother used to dry hers for planting, but my friend lives in an apartment block and has never had a garden.

So why do we carry on these little traditions from yester year? Who knows? Strangely I feel more of an attachment to these pretty plastic carrier bags than I do towards many other items that I haven’t thought twice about getting rid of.

So what is my strategy to deal with this? Well, the first step is to make sure that no more come into the house, although this is fairly easy as I am not the shopping fiend that I used to be but also to politely decline a plastic carrier bag or if on a shopping trip to utilise one bag for all purchases. Colleen will also advocate that this is good for the environment. I actually had to decline one yesterday – shopping for a school bag – yes, a bag for the bag!

And as for the existing bags? Well, I have a number of items on trademe (like ebay) at the moment, and I will honour my mum’s tradition of passing on clothes and use these for packaging rather than buying postal bags. Ironically this isn’t a cheaper option but it will save me from buying another plastic bag, while these hide in the cupboard.

So does anyone else out there find themselves keeping the strangest of things and if so do you know why?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a couple of trinkets, knick knacks or whatever you like to call them.

Eco Tip for the Day

Choose to live in a walkable neighbourhood with conveniences close by so you don’t have to resort to taking your car out when you need something. I can attest to the fact that this is a fuel and money saver.

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

This is what I decluttered on the day of the original post. Can’t say we’ve missed it.

I was wondering what I should write about today when it occurred to me that I have just past the four year anniversary of blogging about decluttering here at 365 Less Things. That got me thinking about how things have changed and in some cases how things haven’t. My living circumstances have certainly changed, having reached the goal I originally started out trying to achieve. I am a little amazed that the goal never really changed over that time.

However, my principles of decluttering haven’t changed at all. So today I thought, just for fun I would dig up a blog post from about this time four years ago. I chose one on retail therapy, something I have not reverted to since writing this post. I only go to the shops if there is something I need to buy. In fact sometimes I need to buy things, like the new bra I really ought to get, but keep putting it of for several weeks because I just can’t be bothered.

So without further adieu here it is.

I have discovered that decluttering is the cure for resorting to retail therapy.

How often do we use retail therapy to make up for times when we feel down, disappointed, bored and other conditions of the mind. What does this kind of therapy do to improve the situation? Usually it just adds more problems like credit card debt, guilt, regret and potential clutter.

It has amazed me how quickly I formed a dislike to shopping once I committed myself to my 365 day resolution to de-clutter my home.

Now when I get spare time I don’t get bored, I use that time to find the next thing I am going to get rid of, rearrange an area that has been somewhat decluttered, or try to come up with a subject for my next blog post. This leads to the satisfaction that I am using my time constructively and am less likely to feel down. I generally feel better about myself and my bank account is looking healthier too. Not to mention the satisfaction that I am helping others by donating items to charity.

Has decluttering changed your attitude to recreational shopping. If so, tell us about it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from the basement or attic  if you have one.

Eco Tip for the Day

If doing the right thing by the environment isn’t inspiration enough to be eco friendly, consider how much money it could save you.

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

As anyone who has been reading here for a while knows, I have decluttered a lot of craft stuff over the last four years. My goodness, it actually has been more than four years now that I have been blogging about decluttering. Anyway, I had a tonne of paper crafting supplies which I reduced down to an amount I was happy with. I had designated a space I wanted them to fit into and achieved that goal. You can go to my Before and After page for a look if you haven’t already seen the results.

I did not declutter them all my supplies I spent very little time using them for the last few years. This is because I have always been a crafter and always will be. I love making stuff, creating with my own two hands. Both my parents are good with their hands, making and mending and it seem to run in the family. So I knew that one day my attention would return more fully to my creating, so there was no way I was going to let the best of my craft stuff go.

Well that time has come. I got creative again after christmas when I made my yearly supply of birthday cards. Then one day while taking a walk I saw a notice in an art space window. We have a project happening here in Newcastle called “The Renew Newcastle Project” the concept is that the owners of empty retail spaces loan their space to this project. Artist apply for the spaces and if lucky get to set up a gallery/shop there at next to no cost. So one of these spaces occupied by the NANA gallery had a notice in their window looking for people to volunteer to do four hour shifts manning their gallery. In return the volunteer is able to display and sell their own works. I jumped at the change and have been creating and selling my handmade cards there for about six weeks now. Each week my cards have become more and more popular.

Now don’t get too excited, I sell them really cheaply so I am not making a fortune. But I now have an outlet to sell what I make. This means that I am ploughing through my overstocked craft supplies at a faster rate every week. Decluttering, making money and loving every minute of being creative. I am also really enjoying the four hour shift, interacting with the other makers and the public. I make do with what I have on hand, actually designing around that, so that I am not adding to stocks of paper, ribbon, embellishments, etc. I do buy white & black cardstock as this is the base for many of the cards and also small tools but there is way more going out the door than is coming in. And what has come in is only stuff I have an immediate use for. No more buying stuff just because I like the look of it and “might use it some day”. That is what gets most crafter in a cluttered mess. That and having a limited outlet for the finished product.

So if you are a crafter, take it from me, only buy what you are going to use immediately. Only buy tools that are versatile and are guaranteed to be used over and over and over again. Know your own style and don’t buy random supplies and tools because they seem interesting. Consider the purchase for a good while to be sure it meets that criteria. And let go of all those things that you haven’t used for years and aren’t likely to. There are old folks homes, craft groups, schools, daycare centres etc etc etc, that will be more than happy to take your unwanted stuff off your hands.

Joyful creating and happy decluttering to all those crafters out there.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item that is only an alternative to another similar item that you now realise you don’t need multiples of.

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t leave tasks linger for so long that you have to redo them such as drying the washing or folding it. This can cause you to have to waste more electricity rewashing and ironing. Need I also mention your wasted time and wear and tear on your appliances.

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