Deb J

 Herbs and spices!  How many do you have?  Do you use them often?  How old are they?  As you can see we have way more than we need.  The majority of these are seldom used and some never used.  They have been around way too long in my book.  It drives me nuts but this is another place where Mom has her ideas and she isn’t going to change.  I’ve tried.  Some of these moved with us 5 years ago.  Yes, that’s right!  Five years ago!!  I wish it would all disappear.

I think we would be much better off if we tossed it all and just bought things as we use them and then in small amounts.  We are blessed to live where we have these stores with spices you can buy according to weight.  If you need a tablespoon of something you have never used before you can go there and buy it.  I like that.  You don’t have a bunch of something it turns out you don’t like.

My spice collection

If you only use it once or twice a year for some special recipe you don’t have to have it sitting around getting old.

I’m on a campaign to lessen the amount of spices we have and the age of them.  Wish me luck.

Today’s Mini Mission

This one may be more than a mini mission but that would depend entirely on how out of control you allow this area to become. The area for today is the desk top.

Eco Tip for the Day

Be very selective about what you buy so that you are so satisfied with the product that you will use it until it wears out and not trade it in for something else soon after.

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

Way back at the start of my declutter journey it was obvious that my craft collection of tools and materials was way out of hand. Especially since I hardly bothered to find the time to use them. So I set about deciding which tools I used and which ones I didn’t and which materials I didn’t like so much. Separating the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

The before and after shots of my craft room. Click here if you want to see the progression shots.

As you can see there is a vast difference between the before and after shots above. But this didn’t happen overnight. It happened gradually through several sorting sessions to decide what I use, what I don’t and what I thought I never would. Many of you have read about my progress when it comes to my craft supplies but this post isn’t simply about that.

This post is about knowing yourself in this time period, seeing where you have come from and foreseeing where you are going and decluttering with that in mind.

This post was inspired by an email I received from my husband yesterday. A work colleague had posted a For Sale ad on their work social board. He had finally come to the conclusion that he and his wife so rarely ride their motorbikes these days that it was time to let them go to a new home.

I dare say this decision took a lot of soul searching because they had been avid riders and dedicated BMW motorcycle fans for a long time. Their bikes and associated gear were decked out with every mod con going. However after spending twelve months separated from their bikes, while working overseas, their lives had taken a different turn. As life is prone to do. It took a couple more years, of the bikes sitting almost idle in the garage, to finally come to the conclusion that life has moved on and it is time to let them go.

The situation was much the same with my crafting supplies. The only difference was that I still loved to craft, I had done so since as far back as I can remember, and I was still participating in it if only on an irregular basis. What I did was reduce what I had to fit the impending change in my lifestyle. Now I find I am once again crafting all the time and even have an outlet to sell my handmade items.

So you see it can take time to make the hard decisions. Every parting with clutter isn’t a sweet one. And sometimes it is just a matter of reducing rather than letting go altogether. Either way it is about know yourself and realising what is now clutter to you and what isn’t.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that triggers fond memories but is never displayed where you can see it.

Eco Tip for the Day

While running the water in the shower till it gets hot only run the hot water so you aren’t wasting more water than necessary.

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 am writing this post with this weeks mini missions in mind. It might help you identify some of those too hard to use items loitering in your home. However the intention behind it is actually to help you avoid acquiring such gadgets in the future.

When viewing product demonstrations, whether in store, at a home show, on television or online, one thing to remember is that you aren’t shown the full picture, and the person demonstrating the product may have had hours and hours of practice.

The simplicity of operation of a gadget is enhanced by that fact that you don’t see  the staging of the demo, the clean up afterwards or the training process of the demonstrator. It is easy to be wooed by a single seemingly effective use and application without giving considered thought to whether it really, saves time, is as easy to use as it seems or if you have enough uses for it to justify the space it takes up in your home.

Attributes can be suggested yet not really proved in a quick demo, such as…

• Ease of use ~ Is it as simple to use as it appears or has the demonstrator had a lot of practice and training. Remember you are expecting simplicity and instant results. That is what you are buying into. Are you prepared to persevere with a trial and error period post purchase.
• Comfort ~ In the case of clothing, bedding, linens etc. A bed you lie on in the store for ten minutes may not turn out so great after sleeping in it all night. Or, a smiling, attractive woman modelling the latest comfort bra doesn’t prove it is comfortable or that it was easy to get into.
• Multiple applications ~ Will you have enough uses for it to justify its purchase. It may be more economical to buy preprepared or hire someone for the task.
• Clean up ~ Does it take longer to clean than the time it saves. Kitchen gadget are a prime example of this. Cleaning by hand can be a real pain and even having a dishwasher isn’t always the solution. That is because the item may still be dirty in the dishwasher the next time you want to use it.
• Effectiveness ~ Eg. Beware of cleaning demonstrations. Applied dirt & marks are easier to remove than those ground in and set.
• Readiness ~ Does its assembly or state of use take too much time. Eg. I bought a super soak-up sponge once but when not in use it dried hard so took five minutes to get malleable enough to use. In a spill situation tit was useless.
• Money saving ~ Eg. A $1300 coffee machine might make nice coffee but how many years of warranty does it have verses how many years of lattes or cappuccinos could you enjoy at your local coffee shop for $1300. Also you often get told the price per cup which often only takes into account the coffee grounds or pods not the milk, sugar, electricity, the descaling solution, the water usage, and the initial layout for the machine. Not to mention you would probably have them more often because the machine is right there to use.

Give these kinds of purchases good consideration before taking the plunge. As I said before, it is easy to be wooed by a clever demonstration. Ask questions, do the math, take a cool off period, look up product reviews online, ask around…

Now I ask again. Do you have such a product loitering in your home. Now would be a good time to seek it out and let it go. Don’t let guilt cause you to hold on to it when it isn’t being used.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter or rearrange something that you don’t use because it is too difficult to get at when you need it so you achieve the task some other way.

Eco Tip for the Day

If family members shower immediately after one another you would save water by not needed the heat up time.

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

We have a plethora of pots and pans as you can see by the picture (see below). This is an area I feel needs to be decluttered. Does anyone need this many cooking pots? Maybe a gourmet cook, which we are not. There are 3-4 of these we use on a regular basis. We make a lot of soups in the stock pot. We water sauté veggies a lot in the big skillet. We use the medium pot for steaming and the smaller one for cooking individual veggies. So why in the world do we have all the rest? Because Mom says we might need them. Mind you, we also have a microwave we use with a couple of covered glass dishes for cooking. Most of the things we usedf to do with the medium and small pot we now do in the microwave. This is one of the holdover areas for Mom. I’m still struggling on this one with her. I’m thinking a move to an independent living life care unit is on the horizon. They provide at least one meal. Maybe that will be the trigger that gets much of this decluttered.

How are you doing in this area of your kitchen.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter  something that has wiring in it. An old lamp, excess cables, jewellery, computer gear, a small appliance…

Eco Tip for the Day

Investigate mopping with microfibre. All I have used for the last 10 years at least is a microfibre mop and a little water (not a bucket full and no detergent).

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 Decluttered Item
Some poster size photos that we have no wall space for.

On our daily walks by the beach my husband and I pass by a little rock pool area. As we walked by the other day I wondered something of Steve that not one minute later he put into words ~ “Do you sometimes regret decluttering the snorkelling gear?” After laughing and telling him I had just wondering if he though that, my unreserved response was no.

You see we had had that snorkelling gear for at least twenty years when I finally decluttered it. It hadn’t been used for about nineteen of those twenty years. The fact is that if I hadn’t began this declutter mission, and let go of all the things we didn’t use, then we would likely never have fitted into our lovely little apartment near the ocean.

Peoples’ lifestyles continually change and if we kept everything because we thought that life would go full circle and we might need things again and again then we would be so bogged down in stuff that life would likely become stagnant. Now that is something I would regret.

Today’s Mini Mission

Start a trial separation of costume jewellery items.

Eco Tip for the Day

Clothes don’t usually need to go in the wash after just one use. Wearing them at least twice will save on laundry detergent, electricity and your time and energy. (This does not apply to underpants. 😉 )

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

There was a lot of chatter generated yesterday about an overabundance of plastic containers. It seems most of us still have an excess of these.

In a bid to reduce food items in both the fridge and pantry due to my long vacation and impending move late last year, I have become very efficient at catering, shopping and using up leftovers to the point where my need for plastic containers has become greatly reduce. I mostly shop for fresh produce, meat and dairy these days from which there is very little waste. Any leftovers are soon devoured.

I have also eliminated several baking items in my pantry. Because I only make dessert once a week, if that, there is no need for a plethora of ingredients to be stored in the panty. For starters, I managed for seven and a half years, living in America, using a combo of baking powder and plain flour rather than stocking self-raising flour so I decided that was good enough for here too. That eliminated one large canister in my pantry. We use rice much less these days too due to our lower carb eating choices so I reduced the amount I stored. Similarly ingredients such as desiccated coconut were so infrequently used I decided it could also go, along with several pasta varieties, chick peas, noodles and white sugar. Should I ever wish to make something with any of these ingredients I buy the smallest possible quantity so there is little or no leftovers, any of which I include in another recipe ASAP.

I also have a variety of glass mixing bowls that nest inside each other which can also be used of storing food. If I can make and store the item in the same bowl it also saves on washing up adding a little more efficiency and an element of eco friendliness. These bowls have lids, but if they didn’t I would opt for a plate to seal the food in rather than waste cling film.

Admittedly not having any children left at home has added greatly to this streamlining.

Is there an area in your life where efficiency would allow you to declutter?

Today’s Mini Mission

Start a trial separation of fashion accessories.

Eco Tip for the Day

Yesterday I cleaned all the glass doors on my balcony. What did I use to do that? Microfibre cloths and water. No chemicals and they are as clean as a whistle. A few good microfibre cloths and good old H2O is better for the environment and can save you cash as well.

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

Hi there. Just a quick post today to say welcome to any new readers scouring the internet for suggestions of New Years resolutions.

I have one for you ~ Resolve to declutter one thing a day for a whole year. It isn’t hard but it sure is effective if your house is currently cluttered.

For those of you who have been decluttering for a while set a decluttering resolution that suits where you are at with your mission to unclutter.

My resolution this year is to get rid of anything that doesn’t fit comfortably into my lovely new little two bedroom apartment. I am loving it here and the only thing that will make it better is to trim down my stuff a little further. Join me on my journey and be inspired to let go what you don’t use or love.

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

You might be wondering what could Colleen possibly have left to declutter after three and a half years of downsizing. Well let me tell you, the decision making becomes a lot easier when limited space is immanent.

With only two bedrooms it becomes easy to decide to let go of a few more towels and a couple of pillows. Visitor space is limited therefore catering for them requires less stuff.

With only a single car space and a small lock up cage what used to be stored in our spacious two car garage also needs to be limited. Couple that with no yard to care for and I was able to declutter most of my gardening tools. Leaving only enough to dig around in the odd potted plant. Also as this move is intended to be more permanent we no longer feel it necessary to store the original boxes and packing for our large electrical items. That will make a big gap post moving day.

There a some items of furniture that are too big or just won’t have a place in the new apartment. They are going to my daughter.  These are items that we would have kept under different circumstances.

We also have limited closet space so in future will be storing the winter items in plastic storage bins on high shelving in the laundry. While packing up my winter clothes I decided to declutter a few less-loved items from my closet. Along the same lines I also decluttered a couple of pairs of shoes. One to the thrift shop the other to the bin as they had so little sole left that water was starting to seep through on wet days. I got a good eight years out of those shoes so I have got my money’s worth.

There has also been the odd thing that belonged to the children show up during my move prep. These items have or will soon be returned to them.

I have also been doing a use it up challenge on items in the pantry and fridge. I stock far fewer items in both places these days but still there was a few things that I no longer have a need for now that the kids aren’t living at home. I have been having fun improvising and exploring new recipes to use these items up. Taste.com has been visited by me several times recently.

My point is that even though many of the items mentioned above have survived the cut in the past there is no space for them in my future. This has made the decision to finally let them go easier. The goal to fit into a smaller dwelling has been my inspiration from the start. However anyone can create their own goals to help them make the decision to let go of items easier. Here are a few to think about…

1. Having a guest room the is always ready to receive guests.
2. To clear enough room in a garage where all vehicles can be parked out of the weather. This is better for the car and to lowers insurance premiums.
3. Wanting your kitchen to be more user friendly.
4. You have been through the arduous task of sorting out after a lost loved one and don’t want to inflict the same torment on your loved ones.
5. Simply to make your home less oppressive…

Basically give yourself a greater goal than I might need it someday.

Today’s Mini Mission

Question: Do I need to waste space storing these salad dressings (mixed spices, sauces etc) or could I quickly and easily whip up delicious fresh alternatives when needed from ingredients that I usually stock in my pantry anyway.

Mission: Don’t double stock your pantry. Get on line and find simple easy recipes for spice mixes, salad dressing etc and do a use it up challenge on items you have no need to stock.

Eco Tip for the Day

Keep a jug in your kitchen sink to save the water that would otherwise go to waste when waiting for the hot water to come through. This water can be used as drinking water, to fill the kettle, rinse dishes, water plants, rinse the sink etc.

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

Me in my wedding dress 26 years after the event.

This week Cindy sent me a link to an article for Friday’s Favourites. It is an article about what to do with your old wedding dress. Cindy had written a post about this subject back in 2010 so I thought I would share that with you today to get you thinking about the subject ahead of Friday.

I have to admit I still have my wedding dress which I only retrieved from my mother-in-law’s house last year. I tried it on at the time but of course it didn’t fit as our wedding was 26 years ago. I am glad to say that it did however come close to fitting. It really is time that I figured out what to do with it. So, on the strength of these two articles, I took the drastic step of putting it in the washing machine today on a gentle cycle in an attempt to clean the yellowed marks off of it. I am working on the idea that it will either come clean, stay stained rendering it useless to donate to charity or washing will destroy it and my problem of what to do with it will be solved. I will let you know on Friday the result of that endeavour.

For now please enjoy this post from the archives.

A guest post by: Cindy Bogard

Colleen asked me to write another guest post, and I was not filled with inspiration, so I polled my friends: What would you like to read about? Sentimental clutter was the most popular answer, and one that Colleen has tackled numerous times. But there was also a challenge, specifically the sentimental clutter of The Wedding Dress, big, bulky, and probably never to be worn again. What to do with The Dress?

So I polled my friends again: What did you do with your dress? The unanimous answer – I still have itor once, my parent has it.

I have mine, which I still think is beautiful 13 years later. It’s hermetically sealed in a gigantic box and is in the top of one of the closets. This particular shelf is rather hard to reach, so the only things that would ever be placed on it are long-term storage items. I have enough storage room in the house, so it stays. Ironically, I do not enjoy looking at it. There is a big oval on the top of the box, and the dress is laid out beautifully, but something about it reminds me of looking into a coffin, so it kind of creeps me out. Weird, I know. However, since I told my daughters I was going to write this post, they’ve been clamoring to see my dress, so I am vowing here, before all of you, that I will pull it out and actually look at it soon.

While we like to think that our dress will be worn by a relative, most likely only a piece of it, such as the veil will make a second trip down the aisle. Accepting this notion, some women have cut up their dresses and given them new life as christening gowns or flower girl dresses. One woman I found on the Internet lets her children play dress up with it. I wouldn’t even let my children play dress up with the cocktail dress that I wore to my first wedding, so I know there’s no chance of them prancing around in the traditional gown I wore when I married their father.

In addition to keeping the dress, there are a couple of other possibilities for it. The first, of course, is to sell it. However, this needs to be done in the first couple of years, because no matter how classic we believe our dress is, styles change, and it likely won’t be sellable after 4 or 5 years.

The other option is to donate it. That I was able to discover, there is only one nation-wide charity in the U.S. that takes wedding dresses,  Brides Against Breast Cancer (www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org), but even they won’t take gowns older than 2005.

But back to keeping the dress. I thought my girlfriends had interesting things to say about their gowns and their choices:

One of my friends despises her dress, but she still won’t part with it. Here’s what she wrote: Anyway, I have dragged the dress across the country four times. But I never throw it out because it’s a piece of history, if you will: a tangible remnant of my past that the kids can explore or chuck. So far my daughter agrees with me that the dress is pretty putrid. But she always says that she’d like to use parts of it for her gown. So who knows? Maybe butt bows will come back in style — and if they do, I’m ready!

Initially, this friend’s dress was saved by her mother, who later mailed it to her. I think it speaks to the feeling of intrinsic importance that we place on our gowns: By “mailed” I’m being literal: She just slapped some stamps on the hermetically sealed boxes –no wrapping, no insurance, no anything!– and sent ‘em US Mail. When they arrived, our mail carrier –who was a woman– knocked on our door and proceeded to berate me for 15-minutes about the “irresponsibility of sending something as precious as a wedding gown” in such a manner.

Another friend said: My husband wanted to know why I was keeping it recently and I didn’t have a very good answer. It seemed like bad luck to get rid of it or something.

This friend’s husband is with the U.S. State Department, and they move around the world every two years. While she did not keep her dress, her father cannot part with it, and it lives at his house. (And, as you will read, she’s a natural declutterer): So interesting that everyone who answered has kept their wedding dresses! I’m surprised. Maybe because I move so often, I just can’t keep stuff. I cried the day we had to sell my grand piano, and I think that was the day I learned not to develop an emotional connection to “things.” I haven’t looked back since, and now I am queen of “get rid of.” The only things I would hate to lose are my scrapbooks. In contrast, everything my parents purchased was to last a lifetime (actually several generations’ lifetimes). I think it may be something about that  generation, or perhaps growing up in the Depression. I now can’t imagine living that way, with all that stuff piling up!

In the end, though, I think this friend said it best: Every so often I think I should sell it just to make space but you know, I’ve got SO MANY worthless things that could be gotten rid of, I am keeping the dress.

Well said! – Declutter what is not precious, so you have room to save what is.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item of clothing that no longer fits but you have kept just in case you return to that size.

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