The Social Networking/Surfing Dilemma

A Guest Post by Deb J

Even though I only check my email and Facebook 3 times a day, I am finding I spend more time than I would like on both.  I don’t spend much time “surfing the net.”  Texting is not a problem because I only use my cell phone for emergencies.  The emails are few and mostly have to do with business type things.  I have been able to get my name off most email lists other than for those like my doctors, Mom’s doctors, our bank, and my credit card.

I really do not have a huge number of people I keep up with on Facebook, yet I find it takes too much time to skim through it all.  The majority of people are from church as we have a group on FB we use it as a way to keep up with what is going on.  Unfortunately, anyone who is in that group has to be friended and means getting all of their posts not just the ones to our group.  That is where one of my issues is.  Some of them put too many posts on there.  Even though I have tightened things down as tight as I can get them, I still receive all of their shares, comments, etc. because many of them have not tightened things the way I have.  I want to get their group posts but would like to not get all the others. 

It is nice to be able to send a text to fill someone in on something they need to know yet will not interrupt them while at work or in a meeting.  It sure can save making an extra trip if someone can pick up an item at the store on the way home.  It helps to keep track of where your teen is.  Facebook or places like it are a good way to keep everyone up-to-date on your life without sending multiple emails or making multiple phone calls.  It’s a great way to share pictures or invite people to an event.  I find myself sending fewer and fewer emails because I am able to use other ways of “talking” to people.  Email has become a method I use when I have much more to say and only to one person. 

I know that face to face or a phone call is nicer but if the person lives far away you can’t always talk to them face to face and the differences in time may make it hard to connect.   That makes me very glad to have these other methods.  So this brings us to the subject for today.  How much time do we spend on social networking and other online activities?  Is it too much?  Do we really need these things?  There are some really good reasons for having them.  Some of them come in pretty handy.  I know we did without them years ago but does that mean we have to today?  If we are going to use them, how do we become better at decluttering the area of the time we spend on them? 

One thing I am going to do is cut back to checking all of them twice a day.  I am also going to create a couple of personal groups on Facebook so that I will only see what I want from certain people.  I am also going to work on educating people on how to tighten up their accounts.  I think some of these will be a big help.  What are some ways you are decluttering your online life?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter CDs that you no longer listen to and perhaps are even embarrassed you ever owned.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown

Eco Tip for the Day

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

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

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

Deb J

How do you live your life? Are you a person like me who used to have an active, busy life with work and other outside interests but now you spend the majority of your time at home? Do you have children at home or did you recently become an “empty nester”? What is your life like today?

It took my mother and me awhile to realize that our home no longer matched our lifestyle. I think it took longer for Mom than it did me but it was true. We had changed. Our lives had changed. Mom was always a very active person who entertained people in her home, was very involved in activities at our church, had numerous social activities and loved to cook and bake to give away. I was also involved in my church, had a very stressful job, and was also socially active. The first major change was when I was diagnosed with three incurable but not life threatening diseases, chronic illnesses. My active lifestyle and stressful job had exacerbated my conditions and I eventually had to go on disability. It took a couple of years for me to realize that not only had my health changed but so had my lifestyle and my finances. Then Mom started to have some new health issues and started to slow down. When you are very active people and you have always been socially inclined toward entertaining and doing, the need to change to a more at home lifestyle not only means having to accept this emotionally and mentally but learning to let go of things related to that old life.

To put this in perspective means taking a new and unbiased look at your life and how you live it. I found that everything from what we had in our kitchen to the furniture we had to the crafts we did were affected. I have always been one who was very organized and kept little above what I needed so for me this change only meant taking the time to declutter what I no longer needed. For my mother this was a major issue. Not only has she struggled with the changes in her energy and abilities but she has struggled with the decluttering of no longer needed items. Coming from a generation that learned to store things “they might need” and have more than one of an item, Mom really did struggle and is still struggling.

Here are some things that I have come to realize during this time.

1. If your lifestyle changes your need for “stuff” changes. My mother no longer does any craft making. She had drawers and boxes of craft supplies to declutter. She also has been decluttering many kitchen items as we no longer entertain much and when we do it is very casual.
2. Your lifestyle changes affect more than stuff they also affect how you use rooms and even how big a home you may need. As Mom has gotten older we have moved more things up to counter level or above so she doesn’t have to bend over as much.
3. Each person will struggle with these changes and for different lengths of time. Like my mother is doing.
4. If more than one person is affected by the changes then the person who first instigates any decluttering needs to express why and how they have come to their decisions with any others affected. Mom was very agitated by my decluttering until I realized that talking about why I was doing something took that problem away. It also helped her to make similar decisions.
5. Don’t push anyone else involved but keep communicating about the changes YOU are making. This is what I did with Mom.
6. It doesn’t have to be done today or even tomorrow. One item a day or less is fine.
7. Don’t declutter something on a whim or because you haven’t done any decluttering lately. Think things through. We have an immersion blender and a regular blender. We kept both because of how we use them for different things.
8. Don’t get depressed if it takes a while to get others on board. Do what you can with what you can.
9. Remember that when organizing what is left to fit the storage placement to how it is used by the one who uses it most.
10. Remember to take a Strangers View every once in a while.

Today’s Mini Mission

In the inimitable words from Peter Walsh ~ “If you bought it over the phone after 8:00pm , chances are you don’t need it.” Declutter it.

Eco Tip For The Day

Got flies ~ Break out the old fashioned fly swatter rather than the spray. Propellent, insecticide, the can, manufacturing… ~  none good for the environment.

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

It goes against all my principles, but I am considering putting clothes, that no longer fit me, into storage. I know! Shock, horror, gasp!

It is all because of an argument going on in my head. There is one side of my brain which is yelling at me saying “What the heck? Did we not go through this last year? Did you not pull down from the ceiling storage, boxes and boxes of clothes in assorted sizes and assorted eras, and proceeded to get rid of them all? Did you not participate in Project 333 and swore never to go back? Did you not encourage other 365’ers facing a similar situation to let go of the past? What are you thinking, girl?”

And then the other side of my brain speaks up “But, you have only been on a new diet regime since December the 1st, you haven’t yet committed to any sort of fitness programme, most of these clothes were purchased in November, what if you need them again?”

The other voices pipes up “How could you even think that? Did you not write a guest post on “just in case” and did you not quote an author saying that kind of thinking indicates a lack of trust in your future?”

“Yes, but your weight has been a bit of a moving target over the last five years and you don’t actually know if you will get down to your goal weight. After all it is just a number you plucked out of nowhere. And its not like you keep a large wardrobe, you keep the number of items under 30 pieces and they would all fit nicely into one of those empty storage boxes and it would take up barely any room in the ceiling storage now that you’ve had a big clear out up there…..I know, why don’t you eliminate something else from up there, so this could take its place.”

“I already need to go down a size in clothing, but I am just trying to make things last until the end of Summer. I won’t fit my jeans and all my winter jerseys are likely to be too big too. You don’t have a problem with getting rid of those and buying new Autumn/Winter clothes, do you?”

“Of course not, I’m looking forward to that, but next Summer is a long time away. And shouldn’t you be thinking of sustainability? Carbon footprint? What if you end up having to re-purchase a whole Summer wardrobe in the same size?”

“What if I don’t? What if by next Summer I am even smaller? What if I don’t even like that style of clothing next summer? What if I don’t have the security blanket of an easy upsize? Would that in itself keep me on target? And what if I’m not the same person anymore? What if this is the new me?”

“Oh sweetie – if you want to think that, you can think that, I’m just trying to look out for your best interests. I just think you should wait and see what happens.”

So that is the debate going on in my head. It is easy to get rid of out-sized clothes that haven’t been worn in years but clothes that are less than 3 months old…….that I am struggling with. My diet buddy (who is not a minimalist nor a declutterer) says I should be replacing roomy items now and not trying to make them last until April. She is, however, a fashionista, whereas I feel I should be saving my pennies for my Autumn clothes.

So 365’ers – how would you settle this argument?

Today’s Mini Mission

If you have moved sometime in the last ten years but still have clothing or equipment that does not fit with and has therefore not been used in your new location it is more than time you decluttered it. This could be clothing, sporting equipment, gardening implements, snow shovel…

Eco Tip for the Day

Get the spatular and scrape every last trace of food out of your cooking bowls. It may not seem like much waste but waste is waste. There are people in the world who don’t get that much food in a day. (The photos are from when my children made lasagne while I was out.

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

The 10 year old outfit

The outfit

I never thought I would write a text about an outfit. Especially not the one in this photograph, because the only relevance it has in my life is that it was never worn. I bought this outfit in 2003, it was Autumn. It is a winter outfit. The skirt and blouse are of a hot fabric (sweating is not an option or it would stick and get smelly, even in winter) and it was very stiff, not allowing much movements. But I am making excuses for myself. I knew all of this when I tried the outfit at the store. I remember very clearly the day I bought this outfit, because it was the one time out of two that I put it on. It was not an overly expensive outfit, but I did pay money for it. The first time I tried it, at the store, I felt powerful. I thought I would put high-heeled boots with high tops and look great. Except that the perfect place to use that outfit never came. Never! And the years came and went. I gained weight, got pregnant twice, lost weight, gained again, bought clothes to fit my new weight, donated loads of clothes that were too worn/small/not my style anymore but this outifit, never worn, never made it to the donation pile. I changed my clothes from one wardrobe to another and the outfit was just going from one place to another. And it never met my washing machine either…

I remember the other occasions that I gave clothes away when I looked at this outfit and I thought: “I am going to use it. The perfect time for using it will present itself.” Of course that time never came. But I could not accept that I had done this, that I bought something and had not worn it. Not one single time. I get hand-me-downs from time to time and I don’t wear the clothes because I don’t like them, I just pass them on. But I did not choose those clothes. I did not go to a store, try them on and buy them. They came for free and the same way went.

On January, 11, 2013, I was trying to do a challenge, like Steve did, and was assembling 100 objects to declutter. And I opened the place in my wardrobe where the outfit was. I was with a trusted person, who helps me with housekeeping and babysitting when needed, and she said I should let it go, because in three years she had never seen me wear it. I did not try it on to see if it still fitted, I just let it go.

Why did I hold on to that outfit for so long? Because, as Colleen has put again and again on this blog, I could not accept defeat. I could not accept that I did not like the outfit, that buying it was a mistake and that it was simply not my style and I would never wear it, no matter how long I held on to it.

I learned my lesson. But it took me too long and I agonized too much over it. Don’t let clutter agonize you, if you have something that you never wore, never used and are just hanging on because the day will come when you use it, give it up, that day will never come. Even if you think, as I did briefly, that there could come a Contry Theme party and I would miss that outfit and would want to wear it, I reminded myself that two such occasions did present themselves in 2012 and I did not wear that outfit. I chose something else. And the outfit had been there, at my disposal, in my wardrobe. So I let it go. Trust me, give up whatever you are not using, you will not need it and the occasion will never rise, I waited 10 years and that “perfect occasion” to use it never came.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – If you haven’t taken a look at your collection of books for a while now is as good a time as any. If you are inclined, reduce the number a little more. Question your sentimental attachment to books you have already read and aren’t likely to read again.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

Remember back in October one of our fellow 365ers needed our advice on getting go of her clutter with eyes. Read about it here. Well this week she sent us and update that she wanted me to share with you all.

Here is what Chrissie had to say…

This is some update on my efforts concerning things with eyes. Feel free to publish if you like to. I am progressing! Not as fast as I wish to but anyway progress is visible – Especially today!

From all the comments of your readers I created little tutorial

Helpful actions

• Involve trusted friend or family member (my hubby and my Mom – I don’t like to share this topic with more people…)
• Start with least sentimental value (I started with a sorting and piled those which I definitely cannot let go and worked only on the remaining stuff)
• Give the items to a friend for disposal (good a idea, but as above, I will no involve more people an that embarassing topic)
• Don’t bring item into you house that have eyes (this is what I always sermonize on my on blog – best way to be free of clutter is avoiding new clutter)
• Paint over the faces to get rid of the eyes (no no no I could not make them blind! Ouch!)
• Keep only 1 box and the rest let go (this is exactly what I managed – I had 4 boxes with cuddly toys, no it is only 1!)
• Put them into a box and give them to charity (there are 2 critical boxes waiting for my approaches to charity, but this is not easy in Germany…)
• Check if you can give them to police, firefighter or pedriatic units who may solace children with them (this is as well option for the 2 waiting boxes)
• Give them to animal shelter (will keep that option in case charity will not work)
• Put them face down into kitchen bin and cover with dirt, e.g. tea bags (this I did with items I occasionally decluttered during last time, this very good idea prevents me from digging them out of the bin once again)
• Take photos (digitalization is good idea, but in fact I was surprised that there were almost no feelings towards the items that I did not put on the “must-stay-pile”. I took no photos, appart from what is attached to this little article)
• Do it all at once (different option vs. step-by-step – In fact I faced all the 4 high critical boxes on one day, but finally there left only some 20 items the house that were in too bad condition for anything)
• Put them quickly in the car and bring them away (YES! In fact I brought them to the Textil Container immediately although this is forbidden on Sundays…)

Helpful thoughts

• Beeing sad is ok, it shows that you have feeling which is not bad at all J
• Give them 2^nd chance to be loved
• They have fullfilled their purpose
• They don’t love you back
• They are from material like plastic, fake fur, etc only – it’s not living!

Yes indeed, I started with 4 critical boxes.

I devided all the content into 2 piles.

The must-stay-pile I reduced to the size of 1 box.

The let-go-pile I devided into bad condition and still usable

The bad condition items I put into plastic bags and brought them out of the house immediately

2 more boxes are now waiting for further purpose.

Inbetween I invited as well my Mom to review what I sorted out. She strongly adivsed me to put one more item into the must-stay-box (…) and took 2 other cuddly toys for decoration purpose back to her home.

That’s it so far!

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Find 10 minute to go through one hanging file in your filing cabinet. Just One! Shred and recycle the papers that need not be retained. The idea of doing the whole cabinet is likely to be paralysing in nature but one small section isn’t so daunting. Am I right? Perhaps next week you could do another small section ~ “rinse and repeat” ~ and before you know it the whole thing will be clutter free. I am using this method on my vast collection of photos.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

As part of my Mammoth Mission I sold my Balinese Dresser and found myself with a heap of DVD’s sitting in boxes on my garage floor.

I should back up and explain that the majority of the DVD’s dated back to my children’s earlier years and at that time in our suburb we had the choice of driving 10 minutes each way to rent a DVD for $15 overnight or buying one from TWH two minutes up the road for $21. Whatever Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks put out, made its way into our home under what seemed like good economics but ultimately ended up jam packed into the Balinese dresser. Now I’m not saying we didn’t get excellent value out of most of the DVD’s – I can recite Lion King ad verbatim – but at the time it never occured to me that one day I was going to want them gone.

In my last update the mission went topsy turvey with my husband wanted the dresser, the bookcase and some other bits and pieces out of the lounge that night. In the weeks that followed my focus had to switch from the contents of the dresser and bookcase to the pile of furniture that had relocated to my garage.

As I found a place for the bookcase, I decided to focus on the DVD’s as they were sitting in boxes, whereas the contents of the bookcase could remain in the bookcase. The dresser couldn’t easily be shifted to my garage so it took up temporary residence in my dining room while it was listed on trademe.

If you read my initial post on this mission, my youngest daughter was quite adamant that we were not going to part with our collection of DVD’s and put up some good arguments to support her stand. Recently I stumbled onto an article about breaking the sentimental attachment to books and although I initially read it with a view to my bookcase, I ended up applying the wisdom to our DVD collection.

Collection is the key word. Rather than viewing our DVD’s as a collection ie. one mass item to defend, we needed to look at them as individual items and decide if we wanted that particular one item or not. Seems obvious? Apparently many collectors trip on this issue. In the first sitting 40-odd DVD’s were boxed to be sent to the upcoming Lionesses Charity Sale, as nobody in the family had enjoyed these particular movies or were of a documentary nature that no one wanted to watch again.

A week or two later (so as not to make my daughter feel too pressured) I asked both of my daughters were there any DVD’s that they’d like to ‘long term borrow’ to their young cousins. We went through the collection one by one and many of the classics such as Bambi, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty were put on the pile to go to my sis-in-laws (I had asked them beforehand). My younger daughter is free to borrow them back individually if she wants, though I doubt very much that will happen.

The remaining DVD’s are currently being stored into a cupboard and we are debating using rip software to copy onto an external hard drive or to use a filing box and sleeves to condence the remaining collection into something that can easily sit in the TV cabinet.

The rule of thumb for the last couple of years is that we rent movies. We have several rental stores in the area now and the prices are more reasonable, however occasionally there is a movie that you just know you want to watch again and again – a go-to movie for girls night in – or something to entertain a gathering of teens – then we opt to buy it via iTunes. Unfortunately in NZ we can’t purchase TV series via iTunes, so I do have to buy a new season’s DVD each year if there is something we particularly enjoy. Why there is the licensing restriction on TV shows here is beyond me but hopefully that will change in the future.

I will also apply the article by Robyn Devine that I mentioned above it to my book collection. I had a tendency in the past that if I liked a particular author I would collect all their books, even their books I didn’t particularly like, in some sort of honour to the author but its not how I roll these days.

Do any of the 365’ers have a collection of ??? which is your personal weakness?

Does anyone have any thoughts on Robyn’s article?

Can anyone guess what my favourite current TV series is? And what is the family’s favourite TV series is? Hint: Its a ’90’s show.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter something you rarely or never use these days because it has been superseded by the “latest and greatest(for now)” version.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

This Week’s Gratitude List

It is Friday afternoon as I write this and my day has been a bit of a shambles so I am really going to have to focus on the positive in order to remember what I am grateful for this week. It was only a couple of days ago that I was telling my volunteer workmates how fortunate in am in life so it shouldn’t take too much effort to recall why I felt that way.

1. Having fresh healthy food on my table every day. This good fortune isn’t affordable or even available to everyone on the world.
2. I am really enjoying the yoga classes that I began a month ago. Having my friend Jenny as company makes it all the more enjoyable.
3. I am fortunate to have had some good reading material over the last couple of weeks. Mostly on the topic of meditating and mindful awareness which are both good practices.
4. I am also grateful for daylight savings. It gives my husband and I  that extra daylight in the evening to get out and get some exercise together.
5. And last but by no means the least, I am continually grateful for how well my son recovered from the brain injury he received two years ago. Just this week I was told that his recovery from such a serious injury is remarkable ~ A very small percentage of people recover to this extent. For this and all those who prayed for him and sent well wishes at the time, I am truly grateful.

Have a great weekend everyone!

This week I received an email from Chrissie who has a unique decluttering issue that she would like her fellow 365ers and myself to give her advice on. Below is the message she sent explaining her issue.

“Although I’m quite successful in decluttering and drive my own project online ~einfach-weniger.blogspot (Simply Fewer in English) I’m lost as soon as things have eyes. No matter if cuddly toys from the childhood (they can be ugly as hell!), knick knacks, useless promo gifts, … as soon as they have eyes they are begging me to stay in my house. All available declutter strategies did not work so far. And please note that only small portion represent items that can be sold or given to charity. Most of items are old, ugly, used. I caught myself picking them out of the garbage once I managed to throw them away.” ~ Chrissie

So Chrissie here is my advice. I think you should get a trusted friend or family member to help you with this. Get together and choose maybe 5 of these items, the ones that you care for the least. Ones with the least sentimental value. Those promo items would be a good place to start. Give them to your friend to dispose of. She is not to put them aside at her house just in case you want them back, she is to dispose of them permanently as appropriate somewhere that you can’t retrieve them. With this method you not only have support, encouragement and rational assistance, there also is not turning back. No taking the items back out of the trash.

If you find you have dealt with this first attempt quite well do another batch. Hopefully over time you will desensitise yourself to this weakness when you realise that once the items are out of your home that you don’t give them much ,if any, thought.

Also, in future, just don’t bring items into your home that have eyes. It is possible to refuse promo gifts. Just explain politely that you are environmentally responsible and don’t accept items that you have no need for. This can apply to things without eyes as well.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter a gadget ~ Gadgets are so alluring but once acquired they often fall short of expectations. Get rid of one of those that has fallen short.

Sunday – On a trial basis ~ for now ~ Sunday will be reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

This Week’s Gratitude List

1. Some lovely fine days.
2. Outings with friends including one of my readers Wendy F. Thanks for coming Wendy it was fun chatting with you.
3. Happening upon just the right box at the shop up the street to pack a skateboard deck in. It was so perfect for the job that there had to be some sort of divine intervention that lead me to it.
4. The opportunity to be creative. I have been making Christmas cards this week with the added bonus of using up papercrafting supplies.
5. My beautiful daughter passed her fitness test this week and will soon be a member of the Royal Australian Air Force. Congratulations baby girl you make us proud.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

I have been on a mission to declutter a bookcase filled with books, CDs, photos and anything else that could be stuffed in there plus a Balinese dresser full of DVD’s

Early September things took an unexpected turn, as a new tv entered the house. It wasn’t planned but not entirely unexpected either. Our small lounge housed an older type tv that has been with us for years and was a favorite perching spot for our cat. Unfortunately the countdown to the final digital changeover meant that we either needed to invest in a digital box and a different aerial because of our area, or consider an upgrade. My husband and I wandered into the department store to look at a smallish flat screen and left with a rather large flatscreen for more or less the same price of the small one. Go figure.

So what did a new tv mean for my mission? Well, my husband decided that he wanted the new tv in the formal lounge and the Balinese dresser out straight away, so the tv could be centred along the wall and the speakers set up properly which meant he also wanted lamp table in the corner out that night too. The original flat screen moved into our small lounge off the kitchen (known as the kid’s lounge) and the bookcase needed to be relocated, turning my mission topsy turvey.

The Balinese dresser has temporarily shifted into our dinning area and after a delay of two weeks we listed it on Trademe, by time this is read, the auction will be over.

The bookcase was relocated to the garage to a spot where a kid size bookcase sat with a small stereo on top of it and a pin board on the wall above it.

Dumped onto the middle of the garage floor are boxes of dvd’s, the displaced kid size bookcase, the lamp table, a box of ornaments which sat on the Balinese dresser and lamp table and our old tv and cabinet. And for some reason chaos attracts chaos and one of my daughters decided to deliver a box of stuff she wants to get rid of.

Straight away I felt like my garage had been invaded by an army of clutter and I felt strangely emotional about this. My garage used to be chock full of stuff with no possibility of the car ever seeing the inside. It took months and months to clear as I worked on the ceiling storage space above at the same time and I have been quite defensive of this hard-won territory.

By the next morning I realised something about myself. I had been so determined to keep the garage floor clear, it had actually been holding up my decluttering in general and indirectly this mammoth mission as well. While the garage was work-in-progress from January to June, I’d used the garage as my declutter-depot but since it had been cleared I didn’t want anything even temporarily located on my beautiful clear space but hadn’t come up with a replacement system for outgoing stuff. So I have told myself that sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war and have set up four boxes for my favourite charities such as Goodwill and the local Lionesses Club and as I fill the box I can drop it off.

If I’m going to have a clutter free clear zone, doesn’t it make more sense that it should be in our living areas rather than our garage? And since it continues to irritate me to see my garage with boxes of stuff in it again, shouldn’t I use that irritation to fuel action?

So the mammoth mission is still very much on, its just got a little out of order. The furniture items were to be the last things to leave in an orderly manner at the completion of controlled decluttering of items one at a time. The lamp table, kid size bookcase and the pinboard quickly left on freecycle. The TV and cabinet also went on freecycle to a guy who wanted a PS3/Xbox station for his kids in their rumpus room. I still have yet to re-house the ornaments but will address that next week.

Moni didn’t take a before shot but got one of her family to drawer this mock up for you all. Even though it isn’t a photo I think you will be able to appreciate the difference in the after photo below.

So 365’ers – has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation, where they suddenly found themselves with excess furniture or had a time limit to clear stuff out cut short?

Has anyone else found themselves defensive of space they have re-claimed from clutter?

I have talked about my declutter-depot where stuff goes to wait its transport from the house, does anyone else have a similar system? And if not, how do you run your outgoing goods?

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter something used for nourishing.

Sunday – Declutter something used as a covering.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

My mother, Leona, is the oldest of three girls. She was 84 her last birthday. Growing up, I thought nothing of all the stuff we had because it was put away neatly, displayed neatly and everyone seemed to have all that kind of stuff. My parents were neat freaks so it wasn’t surprising I grew up to be one too. It wasn’t until I moved out on my own that I learned that we didn’t need to have all of that stuff. As I grew older I became even more aware of what we didn’t NEED. I had the 12 place setting of china, numerous pots & pans, and plenty more kitchen gadgets as well as nic nacs for the walls and shelves throughout the house. It was in my late 30’s that I realized that I had all of this stuff that I never used. I think my china had been used 2-3 times, my expensive knife set had a couple of the knives used a couple of times, I had serving pieces and decorations that I never used. Ack! What was I doing with all of this? In the meantime, Mom was accumulating more and more. She now had 2-12 place settings of china plus her everyday dishes. She had a serving platter or bowl or dish for everything you could imagine, a 30 cup coffee maker, a 12 cup coffee maker, and a 4 cup coffee maker. You name it and she seemed to have it.

In 1993 my father died and suddenly she not only didn’t have the income to continue to live in their 3600 square feet of house but she didn’t want to stay in that town. She wanted to move around with me. That was fine but what to do with all of that stuff. We sure couldn’t afford a place big enough for all of it and didn’t need it if we could. So before she followed me to Colorado Springs we had a huge sale. We sold over $3000 worth of furniture, tools (my father had every tool there was and sometimes 2-3 of them), china, and gadgets galore. I also made trip after trip to the dump with things my father had help onto. Things like 2-3 maps of every state in the US because he was always doing trip routing for friends going on vacation. Every brochure for every vehicle made by Ford, Mercury or Lincoln since 1950. The paperwork for every tax return since 1950. And on and on. I shredded what needed it and then took it all to the dump. We sold 3 cars and bought one new one. I thought we had done pretty good until the movers came to move us. Ugh. Box after box after box. The pile was over my head and took up over half of the 26 foot long living room.

Since Dad’s death we have moved to Colorado Springs, Nampa Idaho, Indianapolis Indiana and finally here to the Phoenix area. In every move we sold or gave away more things. My mother was a crafter and had a room full of craft supplies. We keep getting rid of furniture and craft supplies and kitchen items and anything else I could talk her into getting rid of. But we still have plenty we could dispense with. Over most of this time anything that was decluttered went after much discussion and lots of heel dragging at first. Mom has this belief that if you spend money for it you should keep it until it wears out. If you do get rid of it then you should sell it for close to what you bought it for. It’s not realistic but that’s the way she is. I don’t think it helped that my father was just as bad.

When I started following Colleen’s blog I began a campaign to declutter even more. I didn’t know how I was going to get Mom to go along with me but I knew we needed to do something. I decided to be more talkative about why I was getting rid of things that were mine. Now mind you, my mother has a hard time with me getting rid of things even if I paid for them or someone gave them to me. I’ve known her to dig things out of the trash because she might be able to use them. But I decided that maybe if I talked about why I was getting rid of something and why I was or was not selling it she would begin to start thinking the same way. Well, it worked. She has gone from “I’m not getting rid of anything more” to “Deb, what do you think about getting rid of this?” She still has a ways to go but it’s been amazing to see the difference. One other thing that I think has helped is that she has really learned how much energy it takes to have all this stuff. Even if it is shut away in a box somewhere, it is there and you know it. The other day she made the comment, “You know, I’m glad that when I die you won’t have so much to get rid of as before. Can you imagine having to make all those decisions when you are already dealing with my death?” Yippee!! She’s finally getting it. What really blew me away was the other day when she was talking to my aunt. This aunt has barrels of stuff in her garage attic that she has not opened since they moved to their present house 35 years ago. She’s sentimental and hangs onto EVERYTHING. They have 2 of their 3 sons still living. They are in their 50’s. Do you think their sons want to go through all that stuff when their parents die? Well, Mom was talking to my aunt and all their stuff came up in the conversation. Mom says to her, “Well, if you could afford to fly us there, Deb & I would be glad to help you get rid of all of that now before you have to do it in a hurry.” I was so proud of her. More and more she is beginning to get tired of things or finds them to feel like clutter. She’s slowly working on areas like her closet, her bathroom, and her dresser. When the weather gets cooler she says she wants to, “Get in that shed and get rid of most of that junk.” So now you know that people really can change. No person is a hopeless cause. You may have that decluttered house yet.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something intended for pampering.

Today’s Declutter Item

These don’t fit with the mini mission for the day but they sure are things that have a use that has never been utilised. Hopefully someone will buy them at the thrift shop.

Eco Tip of the Day

 Save a tree ~Stop junk mail. It mostly contains advertisements for stuff you don’t need anyway. In Australia this is as easy as putting a No Junk Mail sticker on your mailbox.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Don’t worry everyone, Cindy is fine she was just insanely busy this week. Instead our good friend Moni has stepped in with a guest post. 

I was recently asked what my Bus Factor was. If you are like me and not up to speed with the business world’s buzz words, you would have needed to be told that Bus Factor is a measure for just how indispencible you are to your organisation/business/family and just how much disruption and disarray it would cause if you were to be hit by a bus.

So what is my Bus Factor rating? Married with three teenagers, there are four other people capable of cooking a meal even if it was basic, two other people with full drivers licenses and my older daughter is a naturally organised person. Sounds good on the surface.

But add into the equation that I work for my husband’s small business and that he is out of his depth with internet banking, he doesn’t know any of our passwords and has actively avoided going to the bank to get a PIN number on his debit card for four years now. He a vague knowledge of the office work end of our business and he wouldn’t begin to know where our insurance policies are kept or or how to contact our broker. He wouldn’t know who our Wills and Power of Attorney’s are filed with, quite possibly he doesn’t even remember we have a Power of Attorney filed. Don’t get me wrong, he is an intelligent guy but he has been very happy to leave such matters to me. Delighted even.

So it would be safe to say that my Bus Factor to my family would be quite high. Oh I’m sure they’d eventually muddle their way through, no one would starve and with a fair bit of stress and help from the right people they would get on top of matters. But a lot of working knowledge walks around with me in my head and to suddenly not have access to that would certainly send them into a bit of a tailspin and that is the last thing my loved ones would need to deal with in a crisis.

So what does this have to do with 365 Less Things? This post isn’t about having an accummulation of stuff to be sorted and distributed, this is about pre-empting a “hit by a bus” situation and about what I call “loose-end” clutter. All those messy financial, household and personal matters that we keep meaning to do something about and in the event of ending up incapacitated or worse, would be left to our loves ones to unravel.

So today I’m going to start a notebook called my “Bus Book” to hold all the important information, contact details, account numbers, payment arrangements and resources that can be called on in a crisis. I’m going list which bills arrive by e-mail and to what address and I am going note which bank statements I have opted for a ‘no paper statement’ option. Naturally I won’t include passwords to internet banking but I will include our banker’s contact details.

I’m also going to make a list of loose ends that need tying up. I am going to look at how many bank accounts we have as a joint couple, individuals and business. I am going to book my hubby an appointment with our banker to learn internet banking under his own login and I am going to document how I run our paperless office system.

I asked some friends who work in the legal, accounting and medical fields what loose ends they encounter in ‘hit by the bus’ situations:

• Not wearing a medical alert bracelet.
• Not updating organ donor status (either way) and keeping releatives aware.
• Not staying up to date with tax obligations
• Not reviewing insurance policies annually
• Not reviewing credit history.
• Not removing guarantorship from bank/finance once loan completed (some countries it does not happen automatically and takes up to 7 years from the request to do so).
• Not updating wills after major life changes.
• Not updating Power of Attorneys after major life changes.
• Not updating guardianship arrangements for dependants.

Since I started looking for loose-end clutter in my life, I discovered that when my daughter legally changed her middle name earlier this year, we informed everyone except our lawyer (re: wills), her bank account and our medical insurers.

I realised that a finance company we no longer use had not released their interest on the securities register on the item in question.

I realised by doing a free credit report on myself that a person who I have a ‘cross identity’ with (exact same birthdays and the same first, second and last names) has returned to using her maiden name and some of her information has been filed mistakedly against my details.

So what is your bus factor? And what loose end clutter do you need to tie up?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something used as an adornment.

Today’s Declutter Item

Just when you thought you had seen the last of the Snoopy items this one pops out of the woodwork. Well actually it was housing some art equipment which my son decluttered an artist friend last week. He no longer needed not wanted this lunchbox so it is off to the thrift shop today.

Snoopy Lunchbox

Eco Tip for the Day

Avoid using plastic straws. Even tiny little bits of plastic like that add up to lots of waste. The less demand we put on supply the less of these insidious little things add to the pollution of our planet.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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