Most people enjoy having visitors occasionally, family or friends who stay longer than just a fleeting few hours. As a result we also like to be able to cater for those visitors with enough room and household items to keep them comfortable during their stay.  A comfortable bed, clean linen, bathing facilities, crockery and cutlery items and food to keep the tummy grumbles away.

There is nothing wrong with this in fact it is preferable to not being able to keep your visitors happy and comfortable or worse, not being able to accept visitors at all. But my experience is that many people over cater for these occurrences rather than just satisfying a need. Resulting in linen closets, pantries and kitchen cabinets literally bursting at the seams with enough household items to cater to a small army.

Lets take linen for a start. An average household of two adults and two children require no more than three bath towels each to satisfy their bathing needs. If two of each person’s towels are washed at one time that makes a full load of eight towels with one each left for their immediate needs. Given that most households have only one guest room that is inhabited for less than one month a year on average there is no need to permanently possess three more towels per visitor for these occasions. If four people are to visit at once two towels per person spread across the entire household would be enough the wash a load of eight with one each left in use. Therefor four extra towels is enough to be visitor ready at any time which is a total of sixteen towels.

A similar equation works for sheet sets. Given that visitors rarely stay longer than one week two sets per permanently occupied bed with one per spare bed ought to be enough. The once a week washing of the sheets could be alternated between family and visitors so there is always at least one spare set available. That is if you have two queen beds and two single (twin) beds in the house three sets of queen sheets and four sets of single bed sheets ought to be enough when catering for the family plus another couple.

Even if a family has no dryer and the weather turns foul it is always possible to utilise a neighbours dryer or use a local laundromat.

Kitchen cutlery and crockery also need not be over catered for. With the extra people in the house either the dishwasher will be turned on more often or you can utilise the extra occupants to assist you in hand washing the kitchenware. Both options give you a regular supply of clean dishes without having to own an over abundant supply. While the hand washing option is yet another opportunity to chat with your guest and before you know it the task is done.

As for food, with grocery stores never far away and in some cases  open 24 hours a day seven days a week there is no need to overstock. This may not be the case further out in the country but even in that circumstance a little forward planning should make it possible to bring in just enough to be adequately stocked for the duration of the visit without having to plough through the leftovers for weeks after the visitors have moved along.

If you have a tendency to overstock give some rational thought to how much you really need verses how much you feel you need. Take into account what is the greatest number of people who would normally visit you at any given time and how long they would usually stay for. Keep in mind that if you have other family near by you can always borrow some extra provisions if necessary.

Coming around to a new way of behaving may take a little adjusting of long held traditional thinking. My advice is to aways question such thinking as that is usually what causes homes to become cluttered in the first place. I am constantly questioning the way I do things, testing new ideas and  adapting to them or rejecting them as the case may be. As the saying goes “Nothing ventured nothing gained.” I feel liberated in my ability to question how I do things and adjust where necessary. It is so much more interesting to experiment with ideas than insisting on being set in my ways.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that has been relegated to the garage because it has been replaced with a better model or has broken down altogether.

Today’s Declutter Item

This item had been relegated to the garage where it sat on the top of the shelve while I procrastinated about decluttering it. The reason behind that is because my dad made it for me. But the truth is I no longer have a need for it so I am ignoring the guilt of letting it go and sending it on it’s way.

Mini side table/magazine rack

Eco tip of the day

Try some home made environmentally friendly cleaning solutions. There are plenty of recipes to be found on the internet so why not give it a go. I am experimenting with a vinegar solution as an all-purpose surface cleaner at the moment.

“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

One of the areas of my home that I have been working on regularly since the very beginning of my declutter mission is my craft room. At the beginning all I knew was that I had too much stuff and I didn’t really have an ultimate goal aside from to keep working at it until I was satisfied I had gone far enough. As I have slowly gotten closer and closer to that point my goal started to become clear. I wanted what I owned to fit into the craft organising cubes that I had long ago purchased for the task. No overflow  into other rooms in the house, no stuff in other items of furniture, no stuff in other storage containers…

It occurred to me while working at this task last week that I have used this goal of decluttering in other areas of my house. Long ago I achieved the goal of fitting everything that was in my china cabinet into my kitchen cupboards. At another point it had become my goal to fit all my linen on two shelves in my linen closet. All my spare blankets had to fit into my camphor wood chest. All our books on one shelf in the book case and all my shoes in the cupboard near the from door.

In general setting an allowance of space for certain items is a great way to inspire you to declutter the things you just have too many off. It is as simple as realising you have far more of a certain category of item than you need and setting a realistic allowance of space for them to take up. Here are some suggestions…

1. Allow one small cupboard space for cleaning supplies.
2. Only keep enough clothes to fit in your closet. No spreading them into the closet in the guest room.
3. One bookcase for all your books, the rest must be sold, donated or given to friends or family.
4. Only keep your favourite DVDs that must fit into your entertainment cabinet. Not piled two deep into a full size bookcase elsewhere in the house.
5. Cookbooks must fit on one small shelf in the kitchen.
6. Kids indoor toys should fit in their bedrooms not taking over the family living space.
7. Utensils could be limited to one kitchen drawer, the same for cutlery.
8. Personal paper work might be limited to a two drawer filing cabinet or maybe even one drawer if you are clever enough to digitise and minimise the non-essentials.
9. Shoes might be contained to what can fit on your closet floor not piled on shelves, in baskets by the door, or hiding under beds.
10. If you have a large home you might even consider making your overall goal to fit everything you own within the closets, cupboards and storage shelves throughout you house and not have items hidden in boxes in the basement, attic or taking over the car space in the garage.

So consider a space goal in your house this week whether that be a big or small goal. It might be the inspiration you need to set a final limit on a category of items you have been slowly reducing for a long while.

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you have too many glass items ~ vases, plates, bowls, drinking glasses…? If so now is the time to weed out a few.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is way more than one item but they were all decluttered in one effort so why not group them together. Although some time back I decluttered enough items form both my kitchen and my long gone china cabinet to fit what was left into my kitchen cabinets I am not stopping there.

Glass Items

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Some days are just special in an ordinary kind of way. A good breakfast, a chat with a neighbour, doing more than just the weekly housework chores, leftovers for dinner, the sun shining long enough to dry the sheets…

“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

I received the following comment from Whisper last week which I think holds an important lesson when it comes to decluttering. Whisper wrote…

“A month or so before my move, I tried a half-cull of my jewelry (suggested in The Minimalist Packrat) – getting rid of a piece for every piece I was keeping. I don’t think I managed to be completely 50/50, but it really helped me reduce to a more manageable level. This was after 3 or more less than productive culls where I just looked for things I didn’t want. It took the irritation of my unproductive attempts to try a new way. Another example of frustration ending up helping.”

…and here is my response…

“What you are saying about culling your jewellery by half rather than just choosing the pieces you really didn’t want makes sense to me too. I use a similar approach with many things in my home. Instead of considering what I don’t want I think about how much less I do want. The desire to minimise usually usurps the desire to keep certain things I still feel slightly attached to.”

Instead of focusing on the things you think you want to keep or don’t want to keep focus on what you want the ultimate outcome of your decluttering to be. Like Whisper, if you want to reduce a certain category by half focus on reducing by half and don’t allow half hearted interest in certain items to convince you to keep them.

Take my kitchen for example. I have revisited the decluttering task in my kitchen over and over again. My kitchen items probably take up only two thirds of the space they used to. I have chosen to keep several things in the past just because they are aesthetically pleasing, suit my tactile nature or just in case I need them one day. But what I really want is to reduce the items to at least half of the original quantity.

I don’t need three different sets of bowls that can perform the same task just because they are all lovely in there own special way. I also don’t need four casserole dishes that haven’t been used in twelve months. I could keep two just in case and declutter the rest. I know that I can always replace them guilt free by picking up secondhand ones at the thrift store in the unlikely event that I might someday have a need for them. Not that I think this will ever be necessary. Now that I think about it I believe most of the items I have mentioned came to me secondhand in the first place.

So to put this plan in a nut shell ~ Just choose your goal and only keep the items that you want, need or like the most to fit with that goal. If your desire to declutter is strong enough this really won’t be a challenge.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that you keep in case of an emergency that never arises. Perhaps your first aid box needs decluttering or maybe you kept that pair of crutches from a previous injury like I have. Granted, I have used my pair on three separate occasions, but three times in seven years doesn’t justify keeping them.

Today’s Declutter Item

As per today’s mini mission here are the crutches I am decluttering today. Hopefully my optimistic attitude of not needing them again in the future will hold true to reality.

My Crutches

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I wasn’t looking forward to housecleaning yesterday but it feels so good now that it is done. I am grateful that the task is made easy by the fact that there is so much less to dust and shift after all my decluttering. I find time to deviate off the usual tasks to accomplish a  few extras because if this.

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – A Review of the Basics

Cindy

Why 365 Less Things?

Let’s get the grammatical question out of the way first and promptly. Yes, we know it’s supposed to be 365 Fewer Things, but it’s not. That’s all there is to it. (Can you believe that Colleen regularly gets comments from readers telling her she’s named the blog wrong? Do they think they’re the first to notice? Declutter this worry from your mind: You’re not the first.)

Now on to the meat of the matter: Why does 365 Less Things exist, and how can it help you?

I truly don’t know the origins of the 365 Thing A Day challenge. I saw it the first time on Unclutterer in a comment that Colleen had written. (Thanks to my friend Janet K. who referred me to Unclutterer, without which my life certainly would have been different over the past two years.)

The idea was simple: Declutter by getting rid of one thing each day.

I thought, “I can do that,” and I’m still doing it almost two years later. My house was a disaster of surface clutter (clean cabinets and drawers, messy counters and floors). Once I started, I couldn’t stop! On average I’ve decluttered three things a day, and it seems like I could go on for another two years.

Decluttering just one thing a day is such a small challenge. It’s so easy to find just one thing. You can take a random approach, open a cabinet or cupboard, and grab one thing, or you can be much more methodical and start in one location, systematically working your way through the house, garage, attic or basement, shed, yard, your neighbor’s side yard (oh wait – you better stop!)

Decluttering one thing a day allows you time to decide the best way to dispose of an item: sell, give away, recycle, trash.

Decluttering one thing a day allows you time to think hard about sentimental clutter and items that you think you “should” keep but don’t want to.

Decluttering one thing a day allows you time to realize the error of your ways in acquiring goods –  whether you shop too much, garage sale too frequently, or never pass up a treasure when it’s bulky trash day in your neighborhood – and slowly amend those ways so you don’t re-clutter at the same rate (or faster!) than you de-clutter.

Decluttering a thing a day is like the saying, “A  journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.”

What one item will you be decluttering today?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter those shoes that you rarely wear that are too uncomfortable, you just don’t like or don’t fit your current lifestyle.

Today’s Declutter Item

So here are my declutter items for today. The shoes that I rarely of don’t use. One pair are too uncomfortable, one pair don’t suit my current lifestyle and the other pair I haven’t worn in so long I don’t even remember what they went with. Either way they are out of here.

Shoes I don't use

Something to be grateful for today

The beautiful sunny day that we have experienced here today. I took the opportunity to take a walk in the sunshine. I saved some gas too by walking to the post office and the dry cleaners. Win win!

“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

I got some great responses on Tuesday to my post on having more respect for one’s diminished possessions. There were several comments that really stood out but these words from Ideealistin related well to something I had put in the donation box just the day before.

Here are Ideealistins words –

Using your stuff gives it great value. But I think it is amazing how not storing the stuff you use next to unused stuff, throwing your mind into constant competition mode, adds almost even more value.

Now for how this relates to my decluttered item. I had two pair of white shorts in my drawer. One pair I really liked the cut, style and fabric of while the other pair although functional were a little bit grannyish because they have elastic in the back.

So which pair do you think gets used the most and which pair do you think found their way to the donation box.

Well here is the twist, the pair I like the cut, style and fabric of have really never fitted me properly. I bought them about six years ago and have probably worn then twice. I have, I suppose kept them all this time thinking that maybe one day they would fit me. Who aspires to getting fatter, not me so I figured it was time I faced reality and admitted these were not the shorts for me. They will no doubt be a great find for someone shopping the thrift store this week.

The other pair of shorts are being worn by me as I write this post. They are comfortable, they look nice enough and the granny elastic isn’t visible because my shirt covers it. Perhaps now I will wear this pair more often because they are no longer competing with the pair that I couldn’t really wear but preferred.

It seems my disappointment over my preferred pair of shorts was tainting my opinion of the other truly more useful-to-me pair. I am sure I will now choose to wear this pair more often.

I used to think being “Spoilt for choice” only meant having lots to choose from now I think this definition from The Free Dictionary by Farlex explains the situation better…

• be spoilt for choice  (mainly British) also be spoiled for choice (mainly American) ~ to have so many good possible choices that it is difficult to make a decision ~ With 51 flavours of ice-cream to choose from you are spoiled for choice.

And this is just one more reason why living life with less is simpler.

Today’s Declutter Item

You may wonder why the shorts mentioned above are not being featured as the item for today. I have added two dresses to my wardrobe this summer so I am considering one of those as a trade off for these shorts. This jacket however was just a piece of my old working wardrobe that really needed to go. It lasted about half an hour before someone bought it at the thrift store.

One black jacket excess to my needs

Something I Am Grateful For Today

The imagination my butcher shop puts into making sausages. We are having lamb, mustard and basil flavoured ones for dinner tonight. I hope they taste as good as they sound.

“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

Bea at The Zero Waste Home lives by the principles of ~  Refuse, refuse, refuse. Then reduce, reuse and recycle. I agree wholehearted with this but I have another re to add to that list.

RESPECT

Respect the things you own treat them well and you will get many many years of use out of them. And if you lose your need for them they will also be in good condition to hand on to someone else.

One thing I have noticed since I have reduced my belongings is that even though I have always been one to take care of my things I am inclined to take particular care if I only have a limited number of certain things.

If you only have a couple of good sharp kitchen knives you will find you are more likely to care for them, keep them sharp and handwash them so they have a long life and serve you well. If you only have a limited wardrobe of clothing you are more likely to be mindful of laundering them well so they don’t get stained or damaged by to frequent and harsh washing.

I have about six hair ties bands. Yes that is right those little elastic rings to put hair in a ponytail. I keep one in my purse, one in a drawer downstairs to save me running up when I need one and there is often one in my hair. That doesn’t leave me a lot of spares so I am careful to keep a track of their whereabouts. In the past I bought these by packs of about 50 and as a result I didn’t bother to be precious with them. This doesn’t cause me extra work it just makes me mindful to put them back where they belong. It is not going to save me a fortune but it will help to reduce the number of them that go to waste.

Now that I have a limited number of kitchen gadgets and utensils I am conscious of how useful they are to me. I look after them and appreciate their worth. It gives me a certain amount of pleasure every time they serve me well.

The fact they I have weeded out the less useful items and sent them on their way contributes to this situation. Also I have no desire to be wasteful with my time or my money or resources buy having to replace things prematurely.

Have you found this to be true for you too? Now that you have weeded out the excess what is left behind is a little more precious and you are taking care of it better. Do you have any particular items that you treasure more. Tell us your stories.

Today’s Declutter Item

If I searched throw the archives of decluttered items I am sure I would find that we had at least 25 caps in this house at the start of my declutter mission. Now I think there is probably only about 10 and maybe not even that many. Being as there are only three heads even ten is too many. One day at a time though, one day at a time. I would like to point out that I personally have one.

One less cap

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Good neighbours that can help you out when needed even in the most obscure ways. Getting to know your neighbours can be very helpful to both of you.

“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

It was a comment for Sabine that inspired this post. She had no desire to do the writing that she usually enjoys because of  all the stuff she “needs” cluttering up her desk. “Maybe it is time to reassess what ‘need’ is.” she said. Then in Tuesday’s post I mentioned how little we really do need as opposed to what we “think” we need. I know I stated in that post that we really only need food, water, shelter and love, it is a little more complicated than that but not as complicated as we tend to make it for ourselves.

You only have to look at the photos all the things I have decluttered from my home to see how much stuff we had that we thought we needed or wanted, only to find that sooner or later we discovered we didn’t need it after all. Somethings took longer to get rid of than others and that was often due to not being quite ready to part with them because we though maybe we still need them. Here are some examples…

• Some we haven’t used for sometime but maybe one day we just might.
• Some had been in use until recently but even though they were useful we really weren’t going to need them.
• At least one was something I thought would be so useful when I acquired it and I used it once in about seven years.
• One just didn’t really fit in the house anywhere anymore.
• One got used once a year to cut leg ham at Christmas.
• Two never did perform the job well that they were designed for.
• Changes of diet, climate and dwelling had a hand in some of them not being used anymore.

They all look useful enough right? It could be very easy to hang on to all of these things with the idea that our circumstances might change and we will “need” them again. Circumstances such as lifestyle, living arrangements, interests, returning to old habits and the like. But please take another look at all of that stuff. What among it is necessary to survival. None, thats how much. And there is still plenty more where that lot came from like the crutches in the garage cupboard that have come in handy three times in five years, the spice chest that only half the drawers hold items that could easily be stored elsewhere, the wine glasses we really have too many of, lots of craft supplies etc etc.

How many items such as this do you hold on to because you think you might “need” them some day. As Lena said in a comment yesterday “Everyone chooses their own games.” The beauty is you can change the game rules if you want to or even the game itself if you like. Take a chance and play the declutter game instead of the clinging to things of limited use

Today’s Declutter Item

This was one too many bicycle pumps and two locks that I couldn’t remember the combinations for.

Bicycle pump & locks

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

What do all these things have in common?

• Buy (Red): 10 to 50% of the proceeds of which go to eliminating AIDS in Africa.
• Book Sale: 20% proceeds go to your child’s school!
• Would you like to buy some wrapping paper to support our band trip?
• How about a beautiful $200 beaded bracelets that supports JDRF? An undisclosed portion of the proceeds are donated to the organization.
• Rubber bracelets for sale for every cause possible. Typically $1 each.

Obviously, these are all ways of coaxing a donation out of you; that is, providing a rationalization for a purchase that you might not have otherwise made. A blunter way of saying it: These sales feed on people’s desires to get something back for their donation or circumvent our reluctance to make a donation in the first place.

The book sale example is from my own life just last month. My daughters’ school sponsored a book sale at a local book store, and 20% of the proceeds went back to the school. As you probably know, I rarely buy books and certainly not new books. But there I was, shelling out $65 for four children’s books. (Yikes! Thus reinforcing why I prefer the library.) The return on my investment to the school? $13.00. They would have been way better off if I’d just handed them $65. But, quite honestly, I wouldn’t have, because my husband and I just made a large donation to the school for our annual fund drive. The book fair was really fun – there were special readings and meet the author events, the honors orchestra (including my eldest) played, and it was a great opportunity to socialize. Also, a lot of the parents at our school do buy books and lots of them. I was surprised my friend G could even carry her basket of books it was so loaded up! Nonetheless, for me, it was really a moment of buying something I did not particularly want or need in order to make a donation to the school.

One of the things I like about our school fundraising gala, which happens in the spring,  is the “fund-a-need” auction. The Head of School selects something that the school needs (last year, a bus), and at the gala, you can bid in any amount toward the purchase of the need, but you get nothing in return except knowing that you contributed to the school.

Dan and I tithe bi-weekly to our church. The bottom of the form that we receive tallying our donations says something like “No goods or services were exchanged for these donations except spiritual ones.” I like that.

So next time you’re confronted with the opportunity or desire to buy something to support a charity ask yourself

1. Do I really want and need this item?
2. What portion of my sale is really going to the organization?
3. Wouldn’t this charity be better off if I just handed them the amount of money I intended on spending anyway?

Today’s Declutter Item

During my recent reshuffle of the garage due to space opening up on my shelving units I decided that this bin is really not needed. We don’t generate enough trash in the garage to warrant keeping it especially since the outside bin is so close by. That’s one more large item that isn’t taking up space.

One too many garbage bins

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My parents made it home safe and sound after their visit. It was a trying trip for them as my mum was really not well, but they are home now and can recuperate in the comfort of their own abode.

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

When Colleen wrote Have Storage Will Clutter, I assumed it would be about storage units, which exist all over the US, some row after row of garages, and others (literally) high rise buildings with full heating and air conditioning services. Some people’s junk in the US lives better than many citizens.

Recently I was  at a class with my eldest daughter and was telling one of the fathers about the blog. He immediately told me that his chore for that day was cleaning out the garage. The coach then approached and asked if we were talking about cleaning out a storage unit. The man said, “No, but we have one of those that needs to be emptied too.” Then the coach shared that she has three storage units. She is going on a trip to Europe soon and noted that the units cost about a European trip per year. She claimed that she intends to clean out one unit when she returns (although I have to say, her commitment to this seemed very half baked, like one of those things that you just get used to saying like “I’m going to start exercising”). I challenged her to empty all three units. Bizarrely, she then said, “Oh no, I’m a minimalist” but had to return to coaching before I could find out how in the world having three storage units and being a minimalist could possibly be related. (Ok, truthfully, I was too busy trying not to snort loudly and rudely to find out more.)

I asked the father why he had a storage unit. He said that they intend to turn half of their garage into an exercise room. In order to work toward this goal, they’d cleaned out part of the garage and put it in storage. At least some of the stuff in the storage unit are items that will be in the exercise room. He told me that the unit was about a cheap as they come at $110 per month (about the same AUD, 81 Euro) and that he’d spent over $1000 (741 Euro) on the unit so far. One thousand dollars and no exercise room yet. The gym closest to my house is $70 a month for a family membership. They could have been working out for the past 14 months for the money that’s gone into this storage unit.

The last example of Have Storage, Will Clutter is a couple I know. Their adult children live in Texas. The parents thought that they would move from California, more than 1000 miles away, to Texas. When one of the children got a long-term overseas assignment, the parents packed up their belongings, sold their condominium, and move into their son’s house. Because the son’s house was fully furnished, they kept some of their personal items, and the rest of their belongings went into storage. This makes sense to me. Having their items in storage was cheaper than continuing to pay for a whole condominium for them, and they knew that their living arrangements were temporary. Eighteen months later, their son returned, and the parents moved back to California, leaving their stored items behind. For a while it was unclear what would happen next, but now more than five years have passed. The parents definitely aren’t moving to Texas, and their belongings are still here, still in storage. They don’t seem to have any intention of repossessing their items, which include furniture, clothing, household items, and collectibles, nor do they seem to have any intention of paying to have these items moved to California. Every year when they visit Austin for two or three days, they visit the storage unit – presumably to get something out of it, but I really don’t know. (Maybe to put something in!!) If the average unit is $100 a month, five years of storage comes to $6600 (4890 Euros). In the meantime, they’ve purchased replacement furniture and electronics for their home in California. My estimate is that this folly has cost them at least $10,000. I don’t really know what to say about this story. It truly mystifies me, but I do know that if storage units weren’t so convenient, something else would have been done with these belongings, rather than just having them sit in climate-controlled comfort year after year.

If you have a storage unit, my first advice to you is to leave the house alone and declutter the storage. You’re throwing money away when what you need to do is make some hard choices and probably many easy choices and live within the space you have available to you. All those “valuable” items you may find hard to part with because “they cost good money” are getting more and more costly each day that you pay to store them. Have storage, will clutter, indeed!

Today’s Declutter Item

I bought this carry file about 15 years ago when working as a teacher’s aide in my children’s first school. That was seven schools ago and it has hardly been used for its intended purpose since. I think it is well past time I let it go.

I

File Folder Bag

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I had a wonderful day today giving a friend a belated birthday treat. We had a coffee, went to the Hunter Valley Gardens (first time for both of us) and had our favour Tom Yum soup for lunch. Everything was perfect including the weather. See photos below.

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

When we talk about decluttering our goal is to end up with less stuff cluttering up our homes and lives. But after living for so long having and always wanting more the word less sounds like something negative, not a good thing. It exudes a vibe of going without, lack and life being not so pleasurable. But in reality the opposite is true. So instead of dwelling on the idea that less is a negative thing why not focus on the positive. How does less equal more.

• Less stuff to take care of = More time to spend doing the things you enjoy. More time to spend with the people you love.
• Less stuff cluttering up your home = More space for comfort and it makes your home seem bigger.
• Less money spent acquiring stuff = More financial security for the things you really need like food, shelter, health care etc.
• Less Money worries = More piece of mind.
• Less happiness tied to material “wealth” = More focus on what really matters in life ~ Friends, family, activities that help others not just yourself etc.
• Less desire for material items = More freedom from the strain of having to work so hard to earn the money to pay for the things to quench that desire.
• The Less products you consume = The better it is for the environment and the supply of natural resources.
• Less things you own that tie you down = More freedom to escape to do the things you enjoy like travel.

This list could go on and on. Think about the material things you desire then think about how much you need them verses the impact they have on your life, your family and the environment. Think also of the way your money could be better spent.

Today’s Declutter Item

One less item of aspirational clutter. This necklace is something from among my craft supplies the was given to me by my mother. I have decided that it is time to reduce my beading supplies and this necklace (or the beads I had planned to deconstruct it for) are excess to my needs. I will be making more visits to my beading supplies over the next couple of weeks. The more I decluttering in this area the better I feel.

Too much of a good thing

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I love the days when I spend half the day cleaning the house and then still somehow find enough giddy-up to vacuum out the car as well. Not to mention churn out a blog post, find my declutter item, chat with my boy, have a coffee with a friend, answer comments…

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