Day 327 Not too many not too few ~ 23 Nov 2010

Each person’s goal when it come to minimalism is very individual. I, for one, cannot ever see myself living with only 100 things as some minimalists suggest. In fact at this point in my journey I have no idea how many more items will leave my home before I am satisfied with the end result. It may be that as time goes by my embrace on this lifestyle could strengthen and I may detach myself  from even more of my belongings than I ever considered when I started. Who knows?

Being comfortable in the here and now with what is too many and what is too few is all I concern myself with. I want to keep working on weeding out the things in the too many category while not getting carried away and ending up with too few for my needs.

Find you own balance

Just as we may have ended up with too much stuff while trying to keep up with the “Have all” Joneses. We could now take it to the opposite extreme by trying to outdo the minimalist Joneses. My advice is to gather all the wisdom you can from all the sources you subscribe to on the subject of  minimalism, simplicity and decluttering but keep true to yourself. Don’t look at it as some kind of competition or feel obliged to get rid of your treasured possessions. Just learn as you go and evolve naturally to the level you are comfortable with. No one is keeping score.

* * * * * * *

A year and a half has gome by since I started my declutter mission and seven months since I wrote the above post and yet every word written there stays true for me. I still am by no means what you would consider a minimalist but I sure am enjoying my much decluttered home and am still not to a point where I am satisfied that my home is as decluttered as I would like. I don’t think either that I have moved the goal posts because really there never were any. My intension was to learn as I go and declutter certain items when I was ready to let go and that is still happening. It is not only happening for me but also for my family members which makes this job even easier and more satisfying.

I still have some areas of my home that have been on my radar right from the start that I either need to revisit or I haven’t even touched yet. I am quite content with that because it has been a continuous effort and I will get to them or back to them when I am good and ready. The changes in my home have been wonderful and I will continue to enjoy the process and the progress.

Today’s Declutter Item

The only time I ever use this electric knife is at Christmas when we buy a leg of ham. I am sure we could manage the task with an ordinary carving knife that doesn’t take up this much room. Off to the thrift store with you old faithful once a year clutter.

Electric Knife

Something To Be Grateful For

When decluttering your home never look back. Be grateful that you had the means by which to accumulate all the clutter you have, think how much money you will save in the future by adopting better spending habits and be happy with each items that leaves your home. Guilt and sadness are of no use to you except maybe to remind you to be more selective in the future, just be grateful of the new beginning.

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

Finding the will to get started on your declutter journey can be far more difficult than finding the excuses not to start. Below I have written a list of excuses that may be holding you back from getting started or continuing on your journey as the case may be.

• Needing to enlist someone else’s help.
• Not knowing how to responsibly dispose of the items.
• Can’t bare the thought of how big the job is.
• Are not sure where to begin.
• Your perfectionist tendencies cause you to give up before you begin.
• There are not enough hours in the day.
• You would prefer to tackle the task in peace but there is always someone in the house to interrupt you.
• You get too sentimental about items you try to declutter.
• You want to get rid of things but feel obligated to keep them so why bother trying.

Here is my advice to combat most of these issues

Never hesitate to ask for help even if you know you may encounter resistance, better that than making no progress at all. You might be surprised by how quickly people will come to your aid when you make it clear how important it is to you to get the job done. Enlisting help may include getting someone to sort through their stuff, cooperation on sorting joint possessions or maybe even getting someone to amuse the children for a day while you attack the task.

No matter how big or how small the task, it can be done by working away at it in as little as ten minute intervals. Just get started with one small session at a time. There is no right or wrong time to declutter. I sometimes do five minutes while I am waiting for the kettle to boil, there is no point in getting comfortable in that five minutes so why not do something useful. And intervals as short as ten minutes can be found before the children wake up in the morning or after they go to bed at night.

Forget perfect there is no such thing concentrate instead on BETTER. If you can’t get past perfect make a game of what kind of perfect little declutter mission you can accomplish in under half an hour. With each effort you get that little bit closer to all over perfect.

Decide what is more important to you, keeping things you don’t really want or freeing up the space in your home, in your time and in your mind. Start on the easy things to part with and then the more progress you make the higher decluttering will become on your priority list which may then usurp the once important desire to keep certain things.

Today’s Declutter Item

I actually sold these Kiss dolls for my son some time back but I just hadn’t got around to learning how to make collages out of photos that I want to include as a group. Making collages is a bit like decluttering, if I had known how easy it could be I would have started doing it a long time ago.

Kiss Dolls

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I went for a walk today but had no real destination in mind or even direction in which I was heading until I got the idea to go for a coffee while I was out. Then I thought ~ I have been out for coffee so many times over the last week perhaps I should abstain. That was went I remembered I had a frequent buyers reward card in my purse that I was due a free coffee on. Now that was something I was grateful for, a no guilt coffee, I love it when a plan I didn’t even have comes together.

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

On Sunday I received the following email from one of 365’s regular readers asking a question I am sure we all wonder about at times.

Dear Colleen

Tell me,  does this decluttering task ever come to an end?  I attacked my clothes cupboard this morning – shoes to go, shoes to demould and then decide, shoes to keep – a jacket for my daughter, two blouses to the hospice shop, a pair of trousers to try on (some time), and the rest to face another day. During six weeks of convalescing I have tidied away a mountain of papers, and organised the rest, read many books, and sent most on their way, and still I can hardly see a lot of change (except in my outlook).  Do we ever get to a stage where we can say “There’s nothing else to get rid of”? I’d really like to know.

Cheers

I must admit after decluttering non-stop for the last, almost, 17 months I have often wondered the very same thing. That being said I am not getting impatient to see the last of my clutter leave the house in fact I am very happy to still be plodding along. I have noticed lately thought that I have gotten to the stage where I know I am now dealing with items I have been ignoring almost since the beginning. Items I have known that I intended to get rid of but for one reason or another kept putting off. I suppose this is a sign that I am getting to the bottom of the heap and will soon be entering the maintenance stage.

Back to the question at hand and why decluttering can feel like an endless task at times. First of all we have to face the fact that the clutter didn’t appear over-night so it isn’t going to disappear over-night either. There are lots of memories tied up in some of the clutter that makes it difficult to part with quickly. There are phases we have to accept we are done with before getting rid of the related clutter. There is some clutter that requires a lot of time to deal with like the mountains of paper the e-mailer mentioned above. There are many items that when removed don’t even seem to make a dent in the collection. And if you are like me and most of your clutter was well hidden throughout the house you really won’t notice it is gone unless you open a cupboard or two.

The e-mailer actually hit the nail on the head when they wrote this line ~ “I can hardly see a lot of change (except in my outlook)” ~ this is key to the situation. Even though it isn’t always visually obvious that we have reduced our clutter so long we know in our head we have and feel the relief from this burden lifted from our shoulders then we are winning the battle.

Decluttering can be a bit like weight loss ~ if you go on a quick loss diet you will likely loose a lot of weight fast and then put it back on again soon enough because you haven’t changed your lifestyle. If you educate yourself about better eating habits and change your diet to suit, then you are likely to have a gradual weight loss and the wisdom to know how to keep that weight off.  Similarly if you declutter in a rush only focusing on making room for the next thing to come along then you will be back to square one in no time. If you learn from your clutter, understand the tendencies that cause the clutter to accumulate and break those habits you are more likely to reach your declutter goal and never find yourself in such a cluttered mess again. This can take some time but it is well worth it in the long term.

I have decluttered my home quickly several times over the last twenty three years, getting rid of lots of stuff I didn’t want to take with me to my next location. In essence that was twenty three years of decluttering to end back at square one, actually worse than square one, with more stuff than when I started. In the last seventeen months or slow and steady decluttering I have learned so many lessons will have given me the wisdom never to get into that situation ever again.

So don’t be discouraged if your decluttering mission is taking a while just enjoy the process and soak up the lessons you are learning along the way. You and your home will be better for it in the long run.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is the craft clutter that I sold last week. I did bring home about half the paper I took to sell and the box of foam stamps at the RH bottom of the lower photo. I intend to drop the paper off at the school down the street before the week is up. The foam stamps I am not too sure about. I made $230 and donated quite a bit of stuff to the craft group who were so kind as to allow me to have the sale.

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ When comedy shows reflect the silly goings on in your own life.
• Something Awesome ~ Freecycle
• Something to be grateful for ~ The 9pm cup of tea my husband makes me each night.
• Something that makes me happy ~ Doing little favours for people. That always feels good.
• Something I found fascinating ~ How sometimes your comfort zone is actually a case of “better the devil you know” when actually the grass can be a whole lot greener on the other side.

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

Among the answers to the ten questions post last week was a response from Cindy to question 2 (For Me)…

Question 2. ~ My style of decluttering is “Slow & Steady” do you think that is a style that works for you and makes my blog unique?

Cindy’s Answer ~  Yes, I think slow and steady for decluttering, like weight loss and love, is better than “fast and furious” which often doesn’t last. In terms of your blog being unique. It must be, because I’ve read every single post, and I don’t read any other blogs except for a very occasional peak.

In response to that answer from Cindy I received this email message from Delores…

I think she is on to something.  When you declutter in a hurry you are not changing habits so are more likely to continue bringing things into your life.  When you go slowly you realize why you are doing it and the weight stays off, your spending patterns change, you can develop new habits.

I have repeated this same information over and over again in my blog because the same thing can be said many ways and people comprehend in different ways also. Clearly, the analogy Cindy used to explain the principles of the slow and steady approach spoke to Delores. So if you even notice that I repeat the same information here in different ways don’t think it’s because I am forgetful or have run out of things to say it is because comprehension is unique to us all and the more ways I say something the better the message will get through to everyone willing to hear it.

When I first started to declutter one thing a day the idea was to just take it easy and not overwhelm myself. Everything was tidy including the clutter that was tucked away in its neat hiding places. Yes I also intended doing a more thorough job of the task this time around  but was unaware of what I was about to discover. Once I got started and began reading minimalist blogs etc I started to realise that the clutter wasn’t the problem but the habits that got it there in the first place and the mindset that stopped me form releasing it were.

It wasn’t that I was oblivious of lifestyle choices causing the clutter I think I just chose to ignore them and follow the same habits most people exhibit. That is…

• Buy stuff not because you need it but because it makes you feel good. Of course the novelty wears off and then it’s back the shop for the next fix.
• Keeping stuff because you can and because it is the “done thing”. After all you shouldn’t give away memories right? 😕 Mementoes from your children and passed loved ones, gifts people give you, cute nicknacks from vacations, things you have deliberately collected over the years. And it would be crazy to get rid of things that you “might need some day” even though you haven’t used them in months or years even though you need the space they are wasting.

Sensible shopping habits, analysing each item, working out why I kept certain things became my new way to approach the declutter process. I think one needs to understand these elements of the task to make lasting change. Purging quickly without thinking about the cause just creates temporary space not wisdom.

When my husband suggested I start blogging about my decluttering experience I was at a stage where I had become far wiser about my situation and felt compelled to share that wisdom with others. I wanted other people to understand that tackling declutteing slowly and steadily could teach them the lessons to make lasting change. When I say slowly it doesn’t have to be as slow as one item a day but slowly enough that you can see the error of your ways because if you don’t see this you are doomed to repeat yourself. And if I have to repeat myself again and again to get that message across, so be it.

As Eve wrote in a later comment ~ As for whether this blog will continue to be useful to me, I have to say YES! Even when we think all has been said and done on any topic, it’s just a fact that frequent reinforcement is the best way to stick with any goal, so I’m counting on you to be here and reinforce my decluttering habits and help me to keep on the right path! Thanks.

Yes Eve, I will be here with the same information different translation with some new stuff thrown in so long as people keep dropping by to read it.

Today’s Declutter Item

Did I mention I finally admitted defeat at trying to use up my vast collection of stationery clutter. These plastic folders are part of the box full of it  that I donated to the school up the street today. They were more than happy to take them off my hands.

More stationery clutter

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me laugh ~ I made myself laugh today making silly ki-ai sounds to increase the thrust while trying to get the doona (duvet) on my bed. I had just changed out the summer for the winter one and it is heavy to try to throw and spread at the same time. I hope the neighbours weren’t listening. 😆
• Something Awesome ~ A great pair of jeans that fit well are confortable and last for years. Like the Calvin Klein ones I bought in 2003 and am still wearing.
• Something to be grateful for ~ Liam starting to get more work shifts. He will be happy finally making real money again. He will be saving to go to America of course.
• Something that made me happy ~ Having the car today so I could drop off a load of clutter to the thrift shop.
• Something I found fascinating ~ and confusing. Why do they have both a one dollar coin and a one dollar bill in circulation at the same time in America. When they brought out the dollar coin in Australia they stopped making the dollar bill. Has it got anything to do with the attachment to the fact that it has George Washingtons face on it. If someone knows the answer to this I would love you to share it with me.

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.

Inspired by a comment from Lynn last week today’s mini mission will focus on items that can perish when left unused to a long time. Believe me I know this happens because I have experienced it more than once. You may be surprised at the things that this can happen to. If you are interested I wrote a post about it back on Day 146 called Perish the thought. If you have an overabundance of these items or if they don’t get used anymore it is best to reduce and/or pass them on now while they are still functioning because there is a chance they will be useless to anyone if left to linger too long. Now lets get started.

Monday – The first place we are going to look is the office area or whichever space you keep your stationary in. Items you’ll find there that could perish are pens, rubber bands, glue, batteries and stickers like address labels. There are possibly more items than this but that list ought to keep you busy enough.

Tuesday – The sewing kit is another place that might house these items as Lynn found out with her 42 year old hemming tape. Elastic is another item in the sewing kit that will likely be the first to perish. Even cotton can rot if left too long.

Wednesday – Sports equipment can have elements of materials that also do not last, rendering the item unusable. The rubber in the band on swimming goggles and bat handles will perish over time, you can often buy replacements for these but lets face it if they have perished from lack of use, not overuse, then it may be time to pass them on. The foam lining on ski masks can also perish (I have experienced this), sports balls crack and leaks develop and what about trampoline mats.

Thursday – I know from experience that electrical appliances can be victims to this problem. I have lost a Kenwood mixer, a toasted sandwich maker, a vacuum cleaner, a toaster and a hand blender because they went into storage for too long when I went to live in the USA for two years that ended up being seven and a half. Had we known we would be gone so long we would have sold them before we left. Belts and seals in things like dryers and fridges lose their flexibility over time if unused.

Friday – Now if you are lucky and don’t have an accident prone person in your home there are bound to be items lying unused but necessary (in case of emergency) in your first-aid kit that are probably out of date. Best to check this area at least every three months. You may not achieve any real decluttering here because the items will need to be replaced but this is one of those areas that needs constant updating.

Saturday – Another place that you will find items with elastic that will perish is your underwear drawer. For some reason textiles that are made to stretch perish faster when not being used than they do if they are.  So if you have more underwear than you really need make sure you either declutter the excess or rotate all items on a regular basis so this problem won’t occur.

Sunday – I almost forgot the most obvious place for perishables, the kitchen. Check out your fridge, freezer and pantry for items that a past their used by date. If you have spices that you only use very little of considered sharing some of the excess with friends, family and neighbours. I ground some of my special curry blend yesterday to give to my neighbour who share his garden produce with me.

An extra little tip ~  If you live in a tropical climate mould and mildew can be the ruination of things like camera lenses and leather goods if not properly stored. The leather goods can often be salvaged but my husband lost all his camera lenses to mildew because it actually eats into the glass surface leaving permanent scars. Google ~ moisture adsorbing products to find solutions to this problem

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

This hot water bottle hasn’t been used for a very long time. I purchased two at the same time many years ago. One perished but this one didn’t, I am not sure why, but I feel it best to let this one go now before it meets the same fate as the other.

Unused hot water bottle

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ Remembering life’s funny moments. Once when we were kids we gave our dog a caramel tart and it stuck to the roof of his mouth. It was the funniest thing watching him trying to lick it off.
• Something Awesome ~ Falling asleep almost the minute your head hits the pillow.
• Something to be grateful for ~ Always having food to put on the table.
• Something that makes me happy ~ Walking by the lake on a sunny Autumn afternoon.
• Something I find fascinating ~ How with some dog breeds you can really tell the boys from the girls without looking underneath. Some male dogs are so butch looking. Rhodesian Ridgebacks for one.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Perhaps if you’re like my mother – always organized, always together, the focused Energizer Bunny – you won’t understand this post, this post about why my house fell into complete disarray and stayed there for about 8 years. Well, perhaps not why it fell into disarray, but why it stayed that way, year after hateful year.

Our house was almost literally always under construction, with my husband and I as the main worker bees. I had two young children. I find housework boring. All those reasons are true. But plenty of people offered to dig me out of my hole, and I had a housekeeper every other week for several years. It would take me hours to “clean” before Ellie came to clean – mostly I was stacking things and tucking them away before her arrival so she could find the floor and the counters.

My reason, in part, why nothing stayed clean was anxiety, unease, discomfort. When I cleaned, I knew without a doubt, that the mess would come right back, right away. I felt uncomfortable and almost unhappy when the house surfaces were clean and the junk was piled up tidily. It was like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I knew, as sure as I know that water rolls downhill, that all that stuff was going to re-emerge, and sooner rather than later. It felt useless and hopeless to bother to tidy up – so why bother at all? I wasn’t working then, and once both of the kids were in school, I carried a secret fear that my husband might “fire” me as a homemaker and send me back to work because I was doing such a lousy job. Truth be told, I would have fired myself!

Besides my defeatist attitude, another thing that kept the house from being clean and staying clean was that I never organized or decluttered all the way. I would load the dishwasher but not wipe the counter. I would pay the bills but leave the stamps and envelopes out. We joked that no one in our house understood the word “away” as in “I’ll put that away.” 90% of the job done was 100% good enough for me. Why did I only go part of the way – laziness, habit, the feeling of wasted time I got from completing the job?

How did I overcome my cleaning anxiety? The kids getting older and the remodelling finally being finished both helped, that’s for sure. I became determined to know where everything was supposed to go. I decided that I wanted to be extremely familiar with the word “away.” And if I didn’t know where something’s “away” was, I would figure it out.

Although I was already on my way toward cleanliness and organization, I really started my decluttering on June 1, which is when I found 365lessthings. Since then, I have decluttered over 1,600 things. I could really see a difference after a couple of months, and so could the rest of the family. My husband, who had been secretly and not-so-secretly longing for a lovely home was praising. When one child’s room would look great, the other girl would ask for help with her room too. The ease of decluttering – and the reward – became exponential. Now when I look at the island (my black hole) and think, “That looks awful,” I know that it will take me 10 minutes to completely tidy it, and I remember that every surface in the house, plus half the furniture, used to look that way.

So remember there is hope for all of us no matter how deep in the quagmire of clutter we have sunk. You can claw your way out one item at a time, one day at a time one area at a time no matter how you got there. If I can do it so can you, you just have to get started. Good luck and happy decluttering.

Today’s Declutter Item

If I remember correctly this was a stocking filler one Christmas. Just the words stocking filler suggests that it is stuff you don’t need.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• I love it when a sentence comes together – Often when I write my posts I am a little too rushed to edit them to my satisfaction or the best of my ability. Not good enough I know. So I do love it when a sentence just comes together and sounds good from the first draft
• The string of cooler days and rain we are having. It is so nice to keep the covers on at night and today I even put my dressing gown on when I got up.
• Knowing I have an entire day at home today – I have quite a few tasks and some unfinished business I need to take care of around here.
• Birthdays that keep repeating themselves – Several of my family got my birthday card out too late to arrive on time while other cards arrived early. The result is that my birthday is lasting for a whole week. I love it!
• Being there for one of my friends when she needed a sanity break.
  

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

For those of you overwhelmed by the decluttering task ahead of you I would like to give you hope. I am going to ask you to do five simple things, and I want you to focus on the effect those things have on your mood. It is important that you carry out these tasks in one short period of time in the order given. Please do not read ahead to the next task until you have completed the previous step.

First Task

If you haven’t completed all the mini missions for this week I would like you to choose two but only carry out one of them for now. If you have completed all the mini missions I set for this week please devise two of your own and carry out  one now. Make sure this mission only takes about ten minutes or so.

Second Task

Now that you have completed your mini mission I just want you to  take one or two minutes to think quietly about how good it feels to get that one small task accomplished. It only took a short length of time but you are one step closer to a decluttered home. This is one less area that you need to work on in the future. I bet you feel enthusiastic to start on your next decluttering task.

Third Task

Now I want you to think about the entirety of the decluttering mission you have ahead of you. Consider how immense the task seems when you focus on it’s entirety. Think of the size of your home, and all the little nooks and crannies where stuff could be hiding. Dwell on those thoughts for a minute of two. I bet you aren’t feeling so smug now, right!

Forth Task

Now I want you to take five deep breaths and clear your mind of the nasty thoughts you were just thinking. I want you  to forget about the big picture and simply focus on the next task I ask you to do. Now that you are calm I want you to carry out the second mini mission you chose in step one. Once again stick to something simple that will only take about ten minutes

Fifth Task

Your final task is much the same as the second. Focus on the task you just completed. How quick and easy was it to accomplish, and how satisfying it felt to be finished yet another decluttering mission? That is one small step towards your decluttering goal. It feels good doesn’t it? The task was simple but you feel you have achieved something. What could be more satisfying than that?

The point of this exercise

I am sure by now you understand the what I was trying to help you see here. Decluttering your home doesn’t have to be a scary prospect that you don’t think you want to deal with, it is simply a series of small tasks that are easy to accomplish with little effort. All you have to do is change your way of thinking and create a little enthusiasm for each task. Everyday find one little area to declutter, spend ten minutes or even a half an hour on it if you have the time. Before you know it the weight of your clutter will start to lift off your mind. That is where it is sitting at the moment – on your mind. It has quietly multiplied over the years without you giving it much thought. So what if it takes a while to physically remove it. So long as you chip away at it one small task at a time and do not add to it, you will get there in the end with minimal effort.

I suppose I could have called today’s post..

How to make a mole hill out of a mountain

Today’s Declutter Item

This was an unneeded gift that fetched $30.00 on eBay.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• Finding hanging space for two pieces of framed art that I didn’t want to declutter but also didn’t have a home.
• My friend Liz – Every conversation with her is fresh and interesting. We connect on so many levels and yet we are both so different.
• Remembering the other grocery item I needed before I gave up and went home.
• That first cup of tea in the morning.
• Manipulating and decluttering enough craft supplies to clear one drawer in my craft area – Now a little fine tuning is in order I feel.
  

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Today’s column is an answer to an email I received from my friend Jennifer:

As I look around and see stuff just overwhelming me, I am working on paring down what I own.  My question is that much of the stuff becomes clutter because I am interrupted and do not get to complete a project (or I under estimate how long it will take me to complete said project).  How are you managing not to continue to have things out of place?  I have gone through and organized things only to find 6 months or a year later that they are disorganized again.

Although Jennifer has posed this as one question, I see two problems here 1) she is interrupted while decluttering or underestimates the commitment, so the project is not completed and 2) things fall back into disorder.

Problem 1: Biting off more than you can chew

Any large-scale decluttering and organizing adventure can fall into this category. When you pull everything out of a closet, you’ve just made a commitment. Here at 365lessthings, we advocate decluttering one thing at a time, one day at time, because it’s a lot harder to get overwhelmed and in over your head that way, but I know that reality isn’t so simple. I often declutter a large amount one day, and “credit” myself for the rest of the week. In fact, in my 8 months of decluttering, I have eliminated more than 1600 things, clearly more than one item a day.

Nonetheless, if you’re feeling unsuccessful after repeated starts and stop, I recommend trying just one or two things a day. When there’s less to dig through and make decisions about, it will be easier. And go ahead and get it out of your house. Jennifer, like a lot of people, lives in the country and does a lot of errands at once when she sets out. Putting the now-decluttered items directly into the car allows them to be dropped at the thrift store while erranding and eliminates the possibility of them being reincorporated into the household mix.

Another technique for the overwhelmed is to do just one shelf, drawer, or basket at a time. If you’re working on the bathroom towels and you find things that don’t belong there, drop them in the corner, and finish the towels. Then put all other items where they belong (or where you best estimate that they should belong) and leave them there. Do not feel obligated to tidy these areas too. Remember, for this day, keep your eyes on the prize of the towels. Run out of time even to put the misplaced items away today? Fine, make that your chore for the following day.

When you’ve completed every shelf in the bathroom closet, go back through the whole thing and refine it. Now that the obviously misplaced and no longer needed items are gone, you can see what remains more clearly. Maybe you have too many towels or duplicates of useful items. The second time through is when you’ll really get the cabinet into shape.

Problem #2) Falling to disorder

The fewer things you have, the less disorder there will be. I’ve definitely seen this in my own home. In addition, the most important rule for keeping your home clutter free is to give serious consideration before you buy something new. The less you bring into the house, the easier it is to keep it from being junked up. This is Colleen’s Key #4 to successful decluttering:

Decluttering is a complete waste of time if there is as much stuff entering your house as there is going out. Limit your purchases to the things you really have put a lot of thought into, whether you will get good use out of it, or if it really suits your needs. Don’t wonder aimlessly through the stores looking for stuff you didn’t know you wanted. And try to convince your friends and family not to buy you gifts unless they are consumable in some way -  Fresh flowers, chocolates, beauty treatments and the like.

Finally, it’s important to realize that no decluttering job lasts forever. Like housekeeping and tidying, it’s an on-going process. The children grow, hobbies change, people knock things over when they reach for something else, duplicates are accidentally purchased or discovered. Maintenance is inevitable, but remember, the less you have, the easier it is.

Today’s Declutter Item

I am making headway with natural decluttering of the paper craft supplies. Slowly but surely the myriad of adhesives are starting to dwindle down to a manageable few.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• Joining the last fragment of soap to the new cake – I love to use things up completely.
• A day out with the kids – I think we took in about 500,000 calories between the Max Brenner Chocolate  Bar and the fish and ship shop.
• My daughters plane was on time.
• I went for a brisk early morning walk with a friend and her dog Max.
• That it was cool enough again today to enjoy a warm shower after my walk.
  

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

It’s Monday again and you know what that means…you guessed it it’s your favourite day of the week Mini Mission Monday. I believe it has been the cure of Mondayitis throughout the world for all my faithful readers.  Ok so I exaggerate a little but trust me when I say that I get no perverse pleasure out of setting these missions knowing full well they may morph into total clean-outs of the areas mentioned. Ok so I am lying again but believe me it is for your own good and I am proud of each and every one of you who jump in enthusiastically with donation box in hand. With that being said here are your mini missions for the week…

• Monday – Look in your jewellery box – Are you really going to wear all of those earrings again? Time to cull a few don’t you think? (Thanks to Cindy for this one)
• Tuesday – Open one of your digital photo sub-folder and delete any not so great photos. Computer clutter is still clutter. (I did say one sub-folder not the whole twenty years of digital memories. Don’t blame me if you get carried away.) 😉
  
• Wednesday – Find one electrical device in your home that you never use and sell it or give it away. It will be slowly dying from lack of use.
• Thursday – It happens nearly every year, I overlook one decoration while packing up after the holidays. If this is you too, take it out to the storage area and add it to the box where it belongs. Don’t stash it in a drawer somewhere because trust me you won’t remember it’s there next year. (Another inspired by Cindy)
  
• Friday – Declutter one item of aspiration clutter – something you own that you have been meaning to learn to use for years but haven’t. If you can’t part with it then start to use it either way it won’t be clutter any more.
• Saturday – Go through your spice collection and declutter any that you know have been there a long time or that you never use.
  
• Sunday – If you have picnic items such as a basket of utensils and the like, a Thermos flask, blanket etc check to see if they are in good working order or if you are ever likely to use them again. If not it is time to purge the items that are of no use to you.
  

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Just a little more silverware that I have no desire to keep cleaning. I am sure the person from Freecycle (if they ever get around to picking them up) will love them.

Things I am grateful for today

• I decided to get rid of my cook books – It is so easy to find any recipe I could want on the Internet and to top it off I can cut and paste them straight into my family cookbook file on my computer that I use all the time and share with my family.
• A restful weekend which included dinner out with friends.
• Ironing that only takes about 45minutes to do once every three weeks – I am not sure how this came about but I am very grateful it did.
• Finding out the my local trophy shop will take my old trophies and use the parts to make new ones when organisations ask for donations – Now all I have to do is get of my butt and do something about it.
• Always finding the motivation to begin a new decluttering tasks – sometimes it may take a while to convince myself to tackle some tasks but in the meantime there is always another less challenging one to contend with.
  

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

The Fear: What if I need it? What if I want it? What if I use it more than I think I do?

It’s real. I know it is. If you can’t jump in, at least stick your toe in the water. It’s fine. You’ll see.

My kitchen is pretty lean and mean, but one day something got cock-eyed in the measuring cup drawer, and I had to jerk with all my might. That made me take another look at what was in the drawer. I had two full sets of measuring cups, plus a couple of unmatched cups and the same with the measuring spoons. As I said, I consider my kitchen to be lean and mean, “just right” if you will, so I wasn’t sure I could part with anything in there. On the other hand, that did seem like a lot of measuring tools. I took out all the duplicates and put them on a pretty tray by the toaster oven – still in the kitchen, not looking too cluttery, and right at hand if I wanted them back. A couple of weeks passed, and I took a good look at what was on the tray. I took back one little measuring cup and put the rest in the thrift store bag. At first I was only able to stick my toe in the water, but a few weeks later, I was able to jump.

When I decluttered the pantry (which I discussed back on day 349), I moved the broom and mops to the laundry room. I planned to hang them on the back wall, so initially I just leaned them there, as I had no hooks. I quickly realized that I would rather hang them where the ironing board hangs. This is a full-size ironing board; we have a smaller one built into our bathroom wall, and my husband uses it daily. I hadn’t planned on decluttering the ironing board. It hangs neatly in an out-of-the-way location, and I use it occasionally. (Very occasionally.) I leaned the broom and mops by the ironing board and confirmed that I liked this location for them much better, but there wasn’t room for them and the ironing board. This was my moment of putting my toe in the water. I left them leaning there, and every time I went into the laundry room I wondered if I would regret getting rid of the ironing board. The fact that I didn’t consider moving the board to a different location was my first clue that I could live without it. A few more weeks passed, I got hooks for the broom and mops, and I very much like them in their new location. The ironing board, I realized, I could live without.

My give-away bag acts as a bit of a safety net too. While most of the time, it’s a one-way ticket to the thrift store, very occasionally, I’ve pulled something back out of the bag. You can give yourself permission to do this too, so long are you’re not undermining your efforts with a frequent in-then-out. If magazines and newspapers are your clutter downfalls, you can use your recycling bin as a safety net. Go ahead and “store” your problem paper items in the basket. When it’s time to empty it, well, you obviously didn’t really need those things anyway.

It’s ok to try before you purge, so come on it; the water’s fine!

Item 363 of 365 less things

I rather like these boots but they are coming apart in the from seam and repairing them isn’t an option. I will donate them though because maybe someone won’t be as fussy as me.

5 Things I am grateful for today

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