Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

This week the mini missions are all about reassessing items you own in multiples. Items you have decreased in numbers previously but now feel you can reduce even more. I find, as I get more ruthless with my decluttering, I revisit areas again and again and reduce more and more the quantity of these items. This can be especially so for items that inhabit more than one place in the house. Even if I use each of these individual items I realise that I can manage with less and declutter the ones I am less enamoured with.

Monday – Sanna commented last week on how many pairs of scissors she has in her home and she decluttered a few. This had me doing a roundup of my own scissors. I owned two more pairs than I thought I did, a total of ten pairs. I decided to declutter three pairs. Do a roundup of your scissors and if you have more than you need choose some to let go of. 

Tuesday – Shoes are another kind of item that need reassessing on, at least, a seasonal basis. Get all your shoes together and decide whether you really use or need them all. Declutter those you don’t.

Wednesday – CDs and DVDs are another thing that we can tire of over time. Flick through your music and movie collections and decide whether they are all loved enough to keep. Sell or donate the excess.

Thursday – I know from experience that, when overstocked, one can lose sight of individual craft items that have been drowned among the masses. Quite often when you do unearth them they are no longer to your taste. Declutter any craft supplies that you, if you are honest with yourself, are unlikely to use.

Friday – I find that the stronger my desire to reduce my belongings becomes the less attachment I have to sentimental items. Assess what you have in the way of sentimental items and declutter those that no longer hold much attraction. Take into account whether you really need these items to remember the people, places and events.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

If you have mixer taps turn them to the hot setting while waiting for the hot water to come through. There is no point in wasting both hot and cold water during this wait.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Last week, I wrote a post praising the wonderful feeling of getting old to-dos done. As I suspected, I was not alone in 1) having pletny of old to-dos that needed to be done and 2) in being overjoyed at how quickly many of them could be accomplished. That made me wonder: How long does (fill in the blank unpleasant chore) really take to do. Here are some of my results:

1. 1 second – Time to put keys in the same place every time I enter the house.
2. 7 seconds – Time to put shoes into shoe cubby and close closet door.
3. 17 seconds – Time to hang sweater on hanger, with one button fastened so it won’t fall off, and close the closet door.
4. 30 seconds to 2 minutes – Time to process the mail upon retrieving it from the post box. I immediately recycle the junk, shred the private, and put any bills or to-dos on the top of my in-box.
5. 1 minute – Time to make the bed, poorly OR 1 min, 40 seconds – time to make the bed well.
6. 1 minute – Time it takes to get more hangers from the bedroom, rather than stacking the laundry neatly on the side of the basket to be hung later.
7. 2 minutes – The time it took me to get the broom and dustpan, quickly sweep the kitchen, and return the tools to the laundry room. ALSO the time it takes for a cup of tea to heat.
8. 5 minutes – The time it took my daughter to floss and brush her teeth and me to clean one shelf in the medicine cabinet. Times 3 nights and the whole cabinet was cleaned and organized.
9. 11 minutes – Time to fold a mixed load of laundry: half folded, half hanging.
10. 17 minutes – Time to fold a basket of laundry that was mostly small things: socks, panties, and napkins.

I challenge you to do something that you’ve been putting off and see how long it really takes for your “boring” / “nasty” / “overwhelming” to-do to get done.

Today’s Mini Mission

This one is a no-brainer really. Even less perishable food has some sort of used by date. So if you have something in the pantry or freezer that hasn’t been used in a long time find a recipe to use it up on. You never know you might just stumble upon a recipe that will end up in your regular rotation this way.

Eco Tip for the Day

Secondhand clothes aren’t just for those who can’t afford new. Daily Lime reminded their readers yesterday that it is a good idea to source secondhand school uniforms. Kids often grow out of their clothes before they wear them out so why not circulate them. Consider organising a uniform swap at your school at the beginning of the school year.

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

 

Every home has items that are never considered for decluttering. Mostly useful items that are in service continually but also beautiful items that are admired or sentimental items that you wouldn’t dream of letting go. These items never feel like a burden to the household because they are a valued part of everyday life. They are used and used again, used up and then replaced or on display somewhere where they can be admired or remind us of happy times, successes or loved ones.

Then there are those items that are only lingering because we haven’t got around to donating, selling or tossing them. Stuff we’d have no qualms about decluttering if we could face the prospect of weeding them out and dispatching them. These items are the easy ones to let go of when we finely decide enough is enough it is time to declutter. Parting with them is only a physical thing no a metal challenge. These are the items to concentrate on first when we begin our declutter journey.

And then there are the problem items, these are the ones which we have trouble letting go. You know the ones.

• Items you keep out of obligation, such as things that have been gifted to you by someone else and you feel obliged to keep them even though you don’t really want them.
• Aspirational items that your inner most being craves to make use out of but the right time or creative inspiration never seems to strike or has long ago left you. Memory tells you these items are useful and that you should hang on to them but all they do is linger and make you feel a that you have failed them in some way.
• Then there are the sentimental items whose lesser significance to the truly loved memorabilia merely relegates them to a box deep in the attic somewhere. Sure when you pull them out you oooh and aaarh over them remembering good time but then they get sent back to where they came from for another ten years.
• And lets not forget the I might need you one day items. Sure you may have a use for some of these items one day but to say you may need them could be stretching reality a little. Stop and think about the things you do use all the time, even some of those are things you could live without. So don’t allow the thought of future regret plague your decision to let go of stuff the isn’t being used and hasn’t for a long time.

This blog post was inspired by a segment in Gretchen Ruben’s new book ~ Happier at Home. She talks about engaging with the items that you haven’t used or appreciated in a while. If you are having trouble deciding whether to keep them or to let items go try putting them into service ~ use them, bring them out and put them on display for a while. Give them one last chance to redeem themselves and if you still aren’t loving them or finding them particularly useful then just liberate them to someone who may find them more useful that you do.

This process can be applied to a few items at a time so you can focus your attention on them for enough time to assess their worth. This can be done while you continue to declutter the items that you are happy to remove immediately. With the slow and steady approach both processes can go on simultaneously so no time is wasted.

I have done this with many items over the last three years of my possession downsize. Some things I have used up and not replace. Some things I have put into use but not found them useful while others I discovered a newfound appreciation for. Things I have kept out of obligation have been viewed with a new neutral mindset and have either past muster or been added to the donation pile. Either way I have been satisfied that I am making the right decision for me and my home at this time and followed through on that decision.

So if in doubt give the item one last chance, in other words either use it or lose it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a pair of shoes that you no longer wear. Perhaps ones that are pretty but a torture to wear. Ones that are old favourites but are really so shabby you never, or shouldn’t, choose to wear them anymore. Or maybe a pair that are so ugly you wonder why you ever bought them in the first place.

Eco Tip for the Day

Add a few one pot meal to your weekly menu. Cooking everything at once saves on electricity and your precious time. I often also cook the meat portion of my meals separately but cook all my vegetable together one way or another. A slow cooker or a set of steamer saucepans come in handy for this method of cooking.

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

Hi everyone, happy new year to you all. Welcome to any new readers who has found their way here because they have made a resolution to get decluttered this year. When it comes to getting started on a decluttering mission the key to success is to begin with the easy stuff. Easy stuff to part with and easy stuff to find new homes for or dispose of. For those who have been decluttering for a while what started out seeming hard has usually by now become the easy stuff. So for the missions this week the theme is simplicity.

Monday – Declutter an item of clothing that no longer fits, you no longer like or you bought for a special occasion years ago and is now out of fashion.

Tuesday – Declutter a gadget that you no longer use. Maybe something from the kitchen that you thought would make food preparation easier but fell short of your expectations.

Wednesday – Declutter something that you have way to many of than you really need. This could be cutlery, crockery, glassware, craft supplies, stationery items etc.

Thursday – Declutter a pair of shoes that you no longer wear. Perhaps ones that are pretty but a torture to wear. Ones that are old favourites but are really so shabby you never, or shouldn’t, choose to wear them anymore. Or maybe a pair that are so ugly you wonder why you ever bought them in the first place.

Friday – Declutter something that your children or grandchildren have grown out of. This could be clothes, toys, shoes, eating utensils, books, games etc.

Who loves to dust? Not me!

Saturday – Declutter some trinkets that you don’t care much about, that are just collecting dust and causing you unnecessary work. This was one of my priorities when I first began decluttering. I wanted my home to be easier to maintain and one of the most arduous tasks is dusting nicknacks.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t accept free promotional products that you have no use for. Accepting these just encourages the continuation of this practice while the environment would be healthier without the manufacture of cheap throwaway or needless items like these usually are.

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

The main guiding principal behind 365 less things is to let go slowly, starting with the easy stuff. It can be daunting enough to get started on this journey so why scare yourself off by trying to get rid of the difficult things first. This principal applies even if you’re a long way into your journey. My experience is that the further you go the more things you find that you never considered parting with before. Therefore at every point along the way there are things you are more willing to let go of than others. So the mini missions this week are designed to help you refocus on weeding out the easy stuff to part with so decluttering doesn’t seem so difficult.

Monday – Declutter something that you no longer use and really never needed in the first place. (Gadgets of any kind, tools, Things you have too many of…)

Tuesday – Declutter something that you bought for yourself which no longer suites your style. (An accessory item, a trinket, scatter cushions, clothing item…)

Wednesday – Declutter something that can be recycled or repurposed by someone else. (Newspapers, magazines, old sheets, old pillows, old towels, bicycle parts, pieces of timber or metal…)

Thursday – Declutter something of little value that you think you might have a use for some day. If you haven’t used it for some time the chances are you never will have a need for it and if you do you could either borrow or buy one. Hint ~ Be realistic about the difference between need and want.

Friday – Declutter an object that has a specific purpose that could easily be performed with another more versatile item. Kitchen gadgets are an easy target for this mission.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

I know what you are all thinking ~ ‘What more baseball stuff!!!!?’. There was a lot of it at the start and I am sure you will be seeing more but there is a lot less now than there used to be. I am satisfied with that.

Yet More Baseball Collectables

Eco Tip for the Day

Why not engage your eco friendly habits in your work place. Scout around to find ways to save water and electricity while at work. Suggest changes to you boss and coworkers. Don’t be deterred if your ideas are met with rejection just do what you can do and hopefully others might follow suit in their own time.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Perfectionism. Can you be too perfect? Oh yeah. Ironically, many cluttered people are perfectionists. Certainly perfectionism was one of the anchors that used to hold me back.

Wanting everything to be perfect can keep you from making progress in a number of ways:

• You don’t have the perfect organization system, so you have no system.
• You can’t get rid of something because you need to determine the perfect person / perfect place for that item to go next.
• You know the perfect person – the exact perfect person – and the fact that you only see them once every two years is not going to budge you from hanging onto the item until that day comes around again.
• You’re afraid that you don’t have the perfect amount of time necessary to tackle a decluttering job as perfectly as it deserves, so you don’t start…ever.
• You fear that your efforts will get messed up – they won’t remain perfect, so why get started at all?

Good enough is good enough! Are your ideas about perfection – both its desirability and your ability to achieve it – holding you back from making progress? One day at a time, one thing at a time will get you where you want to go. No perfection necessary.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one electronic gadget that really only added to your ways to waste precious time while not really improving or simplifying your life as promised.

Today’s Declutter Item

This fuel can is yet another item that has managed to escape my notice for a long time. Being as we no longer have a lawn mower and we have two other plastic fuel containers (one of those will be going to if I have my way) I am pretty sure we don’t need this one. Someone else will be glad to take it off my hands though I am sure.

Fuel Can

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t ignore dripping taps. Replace the washers as soon as possible.

“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

Following on from Tuesday’s post I have another idea to put to you.

Imagine for a moment that you are a prisoner of war and the enemy are attempting to pry information from you. They use inhumane torture methods on you to extract this information. Nothing painful like burning or lashing but more insidious kinds of cruelty like water torture, sleep deprivation or solitude. Things that, taken in small doses, don’t seem so harmful but can drive you completely crazy over continuous and long periods of time.

After serval months the enemy decides that they just aren’t going to get you to give up your secrets or come to the conclusion that perhaps you just don’t have any so they cease the torture. They release you to some menial labour task instead. How relieved would you feel. Labour is certainly more tolerable than torture right?

So here is my question. Why do we insist on torturing ourselves with the constant thorn in our side that is clutter.  We inflict this insidious burden on ourselves for months even years when we know that a much shorter period of physical labour and maybe some slightly unpleasant decision making would relieve us of our torment.

Here is another analogy  that Jane put forward yesterday ~ “…once we started tackling all those “little pesky’s” it felt as if we had made the biggest leaps in our decluttering as those kinda things are like a pebble in your shoes. Sure you can try to ignore it or even try to tolerate it, but ultimately getting rid of the irritation is the only solution. It’s just how long are you willing to “ignore” the pebble in your shoe.”

So explain to me why anyone would want to keep torturing themselves when the solution is relatively straight forward. How long are you prepared to keep torturing yourself for the sake of avoiding a little work.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a decor item ~ Perhaps excess cushions on beds or sofas, or one of too many adornments collecting dust.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is something that has been a pebble in my shoe for a while. There have been a box of books in my garage since 2007 that have been kept for sentimental reasons. By me but at my daughter’s request. I would like to rid myself of them but she wishes to keep them but can’t collect them until she is settled. I thought that perhaps by now they had just become out of sight out of mind so I recently asked her if she wouldn’t mind me letting these Harry Potter books go to a good home. She consented to this proposal without hesitation so now I am one large step closer to emptying one more box. I will run the rest of the box by her on her next visit home in a couple of weeks.

The young boy that I gave them to was very happy indeed.

Harry Potter Books

Eco Tip for the Day

Food takes a lot of resources to produce so never let it go to waste. Have a few recipes handy that are great for using up left over bits and pieces, like curry, quiche or bubble & squeak.

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

For, I don’t how many, years now there has been a minor irritation in my life in the way of an item that needs a little repair. This items is a small picture frame whose stand falls off every time I lift it to dust underneath. Now you are probably thinking I have finally decided to declutter it and save myself from this grief but no that is not an option. This item is precious to someone else in the family so it is staying.

What I did do today was fix the stupid thing. Now I am sure you are wondering ~ Why didn’t I do this years ago instead of allowing it to irritate me on a weekly basis for so long? And the answer would be ~ Heaven only knows! I suppose that once dusted I continued on with my cleaning process and forgot about it until the next time I lifted it.

The question now is why do we do the same things with clutter items, allowing them to languish in our homes being an irritation to us when one small action will free us from the grief. You may be thinking ~ “Because there is far more than one of them and it is going to take more than one small action to solve the problem.” Well I would suggest in response that the  greater quantity makes it even more important to get started on the task because we are no longer talking about one small irritation. With every object the irritation is increased causing us greater grief.

Equally so with every object removed, even at the pace of one item a day, the irritation is also decreased. For me, with 800+ items removed from my home I feel the weight of irritation lifting off me more and more every single day. So whether you are just at the start of your declutter journey or a long way down the track let it be known that every single object you remove relieves a little more irritation. So get started or keep up the good work, depending on your situation, and enjoy the feeling of the weight lifting from your shoulders.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a fashion item. That could be a piece of clothing, a pair of shoes, a handbag, a scarf…

Today’s Declutter Item

Excess cords in this house come up, as the declutter item of the day, almost as often as baseball souvenirs ~ well maybe not quite that often ( we have had a lot of baseball items) but too often for my liking. This pair sold on ebay. And who wouldn’t want to pick one up secondhand if they needed one because they cost a fortune to buy new.

MacBook / iPod Cords

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t throw away your old electronics cords. There is always someone out there who needs one. Either donate them, offer them to friends, list them on freecycle.org or try to sell them. You may be saving someone from having to buy new.

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

People often say to me “I am surprised you are still finding things to declutter!” Actually even I am surprised at some of the things I find at times. Especially those odd things that appear that make me think  ~ How did that escape my notice for so long?! The egg timer I decluttered last week would be a good example of this.

I think what most people don’t realise is the sheer number of individual items that make up an average modern household. Heaven forbid they should start to divide out and add up all those individual items that really aren’t utilised enough to warrant the space they occupy. Items that although definitely have a use in the household could really be lived without. Which is a part of what keeps me finding one more thing each day to declutter.

Lets add up how many Items of the Day I have decluttered so far since I pledged to remove a thing a day for the year of 2010. At one a day for the first year that’s 365 items. Then one thing every Monday to Friday in the second year is another 260 items. Then there has been one thing every Monday to Friday so far this years which makes about another 212 items. Giving me a total of 837 items so far. That may sound like a lot of stuff and it is especially when you consider there are often daily “items” that are actually multiple items which would increase the number greatly. That is also a big number considering most of these items were sitting unused and unloved. I should imagine, that when I am finally done with my declutter mission, there will still be plenty of individual items left in my home. Though, I would hope, a lot less than the average home.

All that being said I have no idea how many more items I will send out the door before I am finished. I know I still have barely skimmed the surface of photos that need sorting. I have several items I still intend to list on ebay. In my opinion the baseball souvenirs could still do with some more serious culling. I am on a continuous mission to use up craft supplies. As mentioned many times, I have boxes of my daughters things that will leave once she is settled into a more permanent home. And as I have said from the start, I get more ruthless as I go along and that ruthlessness is the main thing that has me finding that next item to declutter every day. 

I have no immediate need to minimise any faster than I am. I am also satisfied that very little enters the house so I am staying well ahead of the game. I experiment as I go alone to see if I can do without certain things and if so they are out of here. And I have to say I am actually enjoying the process. I have learned so much about myself along the ways and also made improvement to the person I was before I began. I am certainly more environmentally conscious that’s for sure.

Sure I could ramp up the pace if I wanted to and be done decluttering but then I would run out of things to write about here at 365 Less Things. Then where would I be without my wonderful community to chat with everyday.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something you have been considering for removal for some time.

Today’s Declutter Item

My husband found these three belts that no longer fit or are just excess to his needs. After all one really only need  one brown leather belt.

Belts

Eco Tip for the Day

Save on note paper by using a whiteboard to leave messages for family members, room mates or yourself for that matter. I have discovered that the front of my stainless steel fridge works just like a whiteboard. Now if I could just stop my wise guy son from leaving cheeky messages. Scoundrel!!

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

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