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.

Since the blog has had a influx of new subscribers lately, due to a little publicity, I thought I might focus on the basics for today’s mini missions. After all, the basics are an everyday thing, not just where we begin our journey. Decluttering isn’t something we get better at with experience but just something that we must do if we want to dig our way out of the quagmire of stuff. It is always just about finding the next thing to cut your ties with no more and no less than that. So today I will simply give you some places to start looking. 

Monday – Before you get started on your declutter journey you need to have areas set aside to put the items you are disposing of. You will need a donation area, a selling area, possibly a return/give to friends and family area and of course room in the garbage bin for those no good to anyone items. I use the garage for donation and my craft area for ebay sale items. I use anywhere that will annoy me if I leave things there too long for the family/friends items, this way I will get sick of it being out of place and return it as soon as possible. Set up your areas today and put the declutter items in the appropriate places until you are ready to pass them on or sell them.

Tuesday -Pick a drawer any drawer and find something in it to declutter. It is ok to get carried away and declutter the whole drawer but it isn’t necessary. One thing at a time will make a big difference in the long run.

Wednesday -Today, go to the kitchen for your declutter item of the day. It is usually very easy to find a useless item lingering here. Don’t let the old demon that says “I might need this one day.” interfere with your choice. If an item hasn’t been used for a long time and can be easily substituted for something else you own then you just don’t need it.

Thursday -The linen closet is a place the holds many items that are excess to our needs. You only need so many sheets, towels, pillow shams, face clothes or any of the other miscellaneous items you keep in there. Choose something from this stash to donate to charity. Thrifts stores and animals shelters can always sell or use this kind of thing.

Friday – Today we will go through the underwear drawer. There are always those items that you don’t like so much, that just get kept for a rainy day in here. How often does that rainy day ever come and who wants to wear something uncomfortable or unflattering at anytime. I am sure you can find something to declutter here.

Saturday – I have a coffee table in my lounge room which is now quite uncluttered but even so things gravitate to it over time. I am sure if you have a coffee table or maybe lamp tables in your living room there will be something lurking there that could be decluttered. Find something there is your mission for today.

Sunday – Today is a good day to reflect on what you have achieved already but there is also time to find one more thing. I suggest finding an item of clothing in your closet that you know you are never going to wear. Why let it hang there going to waste when you can donate it to charity where someone may give it a whole new lease on life.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Today’s item isn’t any old item it is also the answer to Simple Saturday’s What am I puzzle. The person who was the first to recognise what it was is Jo, one of our regular readers. Anita, Ann and Snosie also came up with the correct answer. Well done ladies! I am ashamed to say that I have owned this candle snuffer for about five years and have never used it once. 

Candle Snuffer

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful for whatever turn of fate suddenly had my blog receiving publicity. This gives me a chance to help even more people than I have helped already with their declutter mission. I am also grateful that I have my wonderful existing readers who are willing to share their wisdom with those who have arrived after them.

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.

This weeks mini missions are designed to help you plan to declutter. For those of you who just can’t seem to find the time, don’t know what to do when you have the time or just forget what it was you thought about doing when the time is available. Now you might be thinking “what a pile of gobbledy gook that was” but trust me I have fallen into this trap many a time myself. Here’s what I mean.

Lets say you are cleaning the house on Monday and notice an area that needs a little delcuttering but the mission for that day is to clean house and not be distracted by other tasks. So you continue on in your quest to have a clean home. Tuesday arrives and you have a little time up your sleeve and you think “Now what was that declutter task I was meaning to do that I discovered yesterday?”. The next thing you know your spare time has evaporated into thin air and you haven’t achieved anything because you couldn’t remember what it was you meant to do.

Just as easily you can be cruising along in your day and find a small pocket of time to declutter but you can’t think of a little declutter job just right for the amount of time you have to do it in. You can think of big tasks but you don’t have enough time for that right now, nor do you have enough time to plan how you can tackle that big tast in smaller steps. So as a result of this confusion, again, nothing gets done.

Never fear I have a solution and that is to plan ahead. This weeks mini missions are a set of steps to teach you how to do just that. So lets get started.

Monday – Get yourself a note pad, preferably one that is sitting around unused in your home. Go for a wonder around the house and find a few areas, big and small, that need decluttering and write them down in your trusty note book.

Tuesday – Now choose one of the larger items on your list and break it down into smaller sections that are doable in ten minutes. For example, perhaps you want to clean out your closet ~ maybe you will break it down into 1. Sort unwanted items from hanging clothes (or a fraction there of). 2. Sort through one drawer. 3. Sort another drawer. 4 Pull out items from closet floor, sort & return keepers (maybe you will even break this step down into more than one session)…

Wednesday – When you find you have a pocket of free time get started on the first part of each task you have set for yourself. The object of the task is to be able to walk away with the area not being a complete shambles with the decluttered items neatly paced in their donate and sell piles or thrown in the trash depending on their condition.

Thursday – Once again, when you have a pocket of time, carry on with where you left off the day before.

Friday – Today you might have a larger amount of time and can tackle a complete smaller task or else continue on with the one you have begun.

Saturday – By now you will be able to appreciate the steady progress you are making and the fact that just small pockets of time each day can make a difference and propel you in the direction of a decluttered home. The week-end is a good time to discuss, with the other members of your household, what is to be done with items that have surfaced that do not belong to you but you feel may need decluttering. Remember only your clutter is yours to do with what you will, others should be able to have the last say about their clutter. Do this today if you have found any such items during your daily missions.

Sunday – Break down the other big tasks on your list for when you run out of the small tasks you have already planned. Keep your notebook handy at all times so that from now on, when you come across and area or a thing that needs decluttering, you will be able to make a note of it for the next time you have ten minutes up your sleeve.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item 

Last week while taking photos of an item I was decluttering, Liam brought out to me a bunch of old T-shirts he had just decluttered from his closet. Liam has his own distinct style and there is really no point in me or anyone else thinking they can buy him an item of clothing that will suit that style. As a result most of the T-shirts in this pile are ones he has never worn. It is a shame but it is a lesson I have learned and won’t make the same mistake again. These will go to the thrift shop and no doubt will be snapped up very quickly.

Something I Am Grateful For Today

A day of sunshine at last. I was starting to get webbed feet and cabin fever. We had a lovely walk on the hills above the ocean followed by a cup of coffee at our favourite independent cafe.

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.

Today I am going to focus our mini missions on areas in our lives where we might have too much of a good thing. That is, I want you to choose an area that you have far too many of a similar category of clutter items, it might be sentimental objects, objects you feel obligated to keep but have no real love for, hobby / craft items, clothing items etc.

Instead of giving you a separate mission each day I just want you to choose one object from your chosen category to declutter each day. Start with the easiest item to part with, analyse why you have kept it so long, learn from that inward exploration and then move on to a different object the next day. Hopefully making progress each day will make it easier to part with the next item and in the end you might declutter more than seven.

Here are some categories of areas I had in mind but feel free to work on whatever best suits your needs.

• Sentimental items ~ particularly ones that you don’t really like but just keep because they remind you of something you aren’t likely to forget about anyway. Enjoying the here and now or even looking forward is usually more satisfying or productive than reminiscing on days gone by.
• Obligation clutter ~ Items you only keep because you feel you should, things someone gave you like unwanted gifts or family heirlooms rank high in this category.
• Aspirational Clutter ~ Things you “really are” going to get around to using/trying some day. Craft or hobby clutter that is excess to your needs.
• “I might need that some day” clutter ~ We all know what these are, things that you keep because they are so useful yet you never use them but you “may need them someday”. Tools, kitchen items, odds and ends like bottle of buttons, spare parts, excess furniture in the back shed etc.
• Things you keep meaning to put on eBay ~ Either do it or donate them to charity but it is time something was done. (I am going to do a basic step by step eBay listing post on Tuesday to help anyone struggling with this).
• Clothing and shoes ~ If you only have enough clothing items to suit your needs (and washing routine) the likelihood that they will wear out before they go out of style or you get sick of them increases. Hoping that items will come back into style or that you will loose weight and fit into them again is likely to cause you more greif than just cutting your loses, placing pressure on your wardrobe space or your psyche.

If you have any questions or struggles as you perform this week’s task please feel free to contact me either through comments or via my contact page (if you don’t want the world to see it). I am always here to help spur you on with your declutter mission, so don’t hesitate to ask for help.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Buying clothing is a tricky business, it pays to stick with the styles that suit you the most, are practical for the climate you live in and are classic in style and won’t date easily. The items in this pile were either uncomfortable after wearing for a while, out of style, weren’t particularly practical or “seemed like a good idea at the time”. The oldest piece is about ten years old and the newest is about two years old. Now they are going to the thrift store in the hope that someone else will like them.

Some of my clothing items

 Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful for the new leaves growing on my one and only indoor plant. It is a strange plant in so much as it has never changed from the day my daughter bought it for me about three years ago. It gets neglected at times but never dies nor grows when it is well tended but all of a sudden it has sprouted new leaves. Mine is not to reason why, I shall just enjoy the new growth in the middle of winter and be satisfied.

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.

Remember back to the Saturday before last I did a Simple Saturday post on the gradual declutter of my craft room. I mentioned how obvious it was that the area needed more decluttering when viewed through the lens of my camera while I was taking the photos for the post. So this week I am going to give you an exercise which you can carry out one step at a time each day which involves looking at your space through the lens of a camera. There is no need to actually take any photos as the trouble spots will become obvious the minute you focus in on them with the camera. It helps to pretend that you are going to do what I did, that is, to take photos of the area and share them with the world. Once you think someone else is going to be scrutinising you belongs you can become quite a bit more ruthless about what should stay and what should go. So with that thought in mind let’s get started.

Monday – Choose a room to look at through the lens. Today I want you to focus the view on all potential clutter areas of this room. Even if you think you have finished decluttering most sections of the room take a look at them anyway. A this point I just want you to consider whether each area you look at seems cluttered when viewed through the lens. Do not focus on individual items just on the area as a whole. Make notes of your feelings as you check out each section ~not cluttered, cluttered, way too cluttered, could do with a little tweaking…~ that sort of thing.

Tuesday – Today I would like you to readdress the areas that you felt might need some decluttering. View them through the lens again and make notes of the things that you could do to help the situation. This might mean reshuffling to create a more balanced look, returning out of place items to their rightful place, or getting rid of some items altogether.

Wednesday – Remove any items that you are willing to declutter and send them to the staging areas you use for donating, passing on to friends or family and selling. You may also have items that need throwing away of recycling so do that now also.

Thursday – Return the out of place items to their rightful places throughout the house.

Friday – Reshuffle any other items you feel will make the space look tidy and uncluttered.

Saturday – Return to the room again and take another round of views through the camera lens and see what you think. Do any tweaking you feel is necessary.

Sunday – Finally take one last look through the camera lens and if you are satisfied sit back and enjoy the area for a while and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

As I have mentioned before, I always stay about one month ahead with my decluttering in the event that I may go on vacation or something untoward might happen to prevent me from decluttering each day. That being said I end up seeing the images of objects over and over again as I upload my daily declutter item photo. I say that because I swear I have used this melon baller photo before but a search of my blog says otherwise. If you remember that I have used it please let me know and I will declutter something else to take it’s place.

The reason I am getting rid of the melon baller is that I never have reason to make melon balls. At one point I did use to quite often to core pears with but I can’t say I have done that for many years either. I find that utensil drawers in kitchens have enough useful gadgets to fill them up so I don’t need this item cluttering up much needed space. It will go, as usual to the thrift store. If I need to core any pears in the future I will just use a knife.

Melon Baller

Something I Am Grateful For Today

As a person who can be fairly highly strung at times today I am feeling quite relaxed. Even though I have plenty to do and deadlines to meet I am not concerned and am happy to work at a sedate pace until everything is done. I am grateful to be feeling this way and when I stop to think about the situation I try to cement it in my mind for those times that I am not so easy going. The lesson is that if I can feel this way today I should be able to do it everyday and that is something to keep in mind the next time I find myself getting worked up about not having enough hours in the day.

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.

This week, since I am on vacation (sort of), I am going to take it easy on you as well. We will do some really quick mini missions that shouldn’t take long. Keep it simple is the theme of the day, just glance at each of the areas I set and declutter any obvious items that meet your gaze. If the exercise inspires you to do a thorough declutter of the area then good for you but it isn’t necessary so don’t blame me if you get carried away. You can give me credit for inspiration if you like though. 🙂

Monday – A shelf in the pantry.

Tuesday – Your junk drawer if you still have one after all my nagging.

Wednesday – Your bedside cabinet/table.

Thursday – Sock drawer, anyone’s will do.

Friday – The glove box of your car.

Saturday – A bathroom cabinet or drawer

Sunday – The shoe cupboard/box or wherever shoes congregate in your home. My son thinks this is the floor under my breakfast bar but he is ill-informed ~ actually he is constantly informed that this is not where they belong but he is reluctant to comply.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

As you know I travel light. I see no point in owning a box like this that takes up more space than the items meant to be kept in it. Yet another item for the thrift store.

Toothbrush/Paste Box

Something I am Gratitude For

I am grateful for whatever divine intervention put the idea into my head to declutter one thing a day. This thought jumped into my head in a split second one day and I went with it and haven’t looked back.

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.

Although I have called this post ~ The keepsake box ~ it could apply to any box of hidden clutter/treasures you have in your home. So use your imagination if you don’t have a keepsake box or yours has recently been decluttered. Some other suggestion to apply this post to would be moving boxes you haven’t empties after your last move, any box of stuff you don’t require often but does need the occasional declutter or even your junk drawer again if nothing else applies.

Monday – Locate the box/container you are going to declutter then choose a space in your home that you can spread out the contents of this container and happily work on it for the week without it disrupting your household. Perhaps a spare room, a formal dining room that isn’t used so much etc.

Tuesday – Remove all the items from the box and spread them out in the area you have chosen. Pay attention to each item as you remove it from the box and then once all the items are spread out take a little time to review them the leave it to deal with tomorrow. In the meantime whenever you have a spare minute give some thought to the items and assess them in your mind.

Wednesday – Return to your items and sort them into KEEP ~ DONATE ~ SELL ~ THROW AWAY ~ RECYCLE. Then leave them until tomorrow.

Thursday – Today, you will 1. throw out the rubbish items, 2. put the recyclable items in your recycle bin or set aside to be sent to the appropriate place to be recycled and 3. return the items you wish to keep to their rightful place whether that be back in the box or to a new keeping place.

Friday – Sort through the items you intend to donate and make sure they are clean and in good enough condition to donate to someone else. Then put these items in your donation area for the next time you make a drop off or for when you see the people you intend to give them to.

Saturday – Go through you sell pile and once again make sure they are clean and in a good enough condition to sell. Make the necessary notes you will need about each item in order to put them up for sale. Follow your normal selling procedure from here whether that be advertising them immediately or like me setting them aside for when it suits you better.

Sunday – I guess this exercise is already complete so you can rest up today and be ready for the next set of mini mission tomorrow.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

My husband is very good at this declutter thing. He decided this denim jacket wasn’t warm, double denim is just bad taste dressing and he just didn’t wear it so off to the thrift store with it.

Denim Jacket

Something I Am Grateful For Today

At the moment, regardless of the three days I didn’t have access to the internet, I am making great progress at getting my blog up to day. The writing juices are flowing and, although slow still, the internet is working. I am sure grateful for this because I had serious doubts I was going to get it all together before going away.

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.

Today we are not going to concentrate on getting rid of stuff but tidying up clutter that is simply out of place. After all, according to most of the online dictionaries I have looked at, clutter is never referred to as, excessive possessions but as a disorderly array of stuff or noise. So this week we will concentrate on putting in order some stuff we have no intension, at least for the moment, of getting rid of. As per the intent of “Mini Mission Mondays” we will concentrate on one area and break the task down into simple steps that will not only make the task more bearable but make you think about why this area constantly gets disorderly and how to stop the cycle.

Monday – Pick an area of your house that you are in control of that you use every day. What I mean by that is an area that is disorderly and you are mostly responsible for that. So we aren’t talking about a child’s bedroom or the garage or a shared shoe closet. Maybe your sock drawer, your car, your side of the bathroom cabinet or maybe  your closet would be a good target. This will be an easier choice if you live alone of course. Try to choose and area that isn’t too big a task for this exercise because we want to keep it relatively simple and stress free. Today I just want you to observe that area for ten minutes or so and try to analyze what you think the cause fo the disarray might be.

Tuesday – Today I would like you to spend ten minutes tidying in this area and returning things to their proper homes elsewhere, should that be necessary. Hopefully ten minutes will just about whip it into shape, if not spend another ten minutes tomorrow.

Wednesday – Finish tidying this area if you haven’t already done so and then continue to use it as usual.

Thursday – Go back to your chosen area and see if it is still as tidy as you left it yesterday. If it isn’t stop and observe what is out of place and why you think it has gotten that way. Tidy the area again but this time utilise what ever you have on hand in the home that will help keep the area tidier (Think outside the box if you have to). Perhaps the problem isn’t that the area is not organised properly but that you are not making the effort to put things away properly as you go. Think about this and consider what you need to do to improve the situation and start acting on that.

Friday – Once again just use the area as normal but be always observing the practicality of the space and the set up. Make any adjustment you think may improve the system already in place.

Saturday – Are you seeing an improvement on the way this area is shaping up each day. If so stop and think has it really taken that much extra effort or has it just been a matter of making the right choices in arrangement and or behaviour.

Sunday - Keep tweaking and observing and analysing your habits. Studies show that it takes about twenty one days to form a new behaviour or start to break an old one so keep focusing on this area until you feel sure you have broken your bad habits and replaced them with new more organised ones. If you feel successful with this area of your home maybe once the twenty one days are up you may want to begin to work on a new area.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

This is a group of sewing things that have been sitting in a drawer not being used and if they aren’t being used I don’t need to keep them. One more donation off to the thrift shop.

Sewing Stuff

Something I Am Grateful For Today

What isn’t there to be grateful for today. It is Sunday so I got up leisurely, only did what I felt like doing, spent the afternoon with a friend and had a bottle of wine with a dinner that was delicious but took minimal effort. If my husband was here the day would be perfect but close to perfect is good enough for 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.

Some areas of our homes require constant clutter control just because of the nature of what they are. There is a continuous flow of stuff coming in and out of these areas and naturally at some point items become redundant for one reason or another or we just lose items in the melee only to discover them later when they are no longer required. Each day this week we will declutter something from seven different areas like this.

Monday –The Toy Box ~ Over time toys get broken or outgrown and work their way to the bottom of the toy box where they lie unloved until we take the time to sort through them. Now it that time.

Tuesday – The Pantry ~ You don’t need to clean out the entire pantry just take a look from the door and see if you can spot one item that you know is likely past its prime.

Wednesday – The Car ~ I know that during the course of getting from A to B and back again stuff makes its way to the car and doesn’t get returned to the place it belongs immediately and sometimes trash can accumulate there also. Every now and again we need to take some time out to put everything right. Today would be a good day for that.

Thursday – The Junk Drawer ~ or black hole (an area in your home where odds and ends collect) is another area that builds up with displaced items that needs constant reshuffling and decluttering.

Friday – Child’s Closet ~ Children have a tendancy to just keep on growing some faster than other ,or slower as the case was with my children, but no matter the speed the clothes will become unwearable sooner or later. It is a good idea to identify the ill-fitting clothes as we dress children on a daily basis then shuffle them to the appropriate disposal place in our home. Whether that be in the bin if they are old and shabby or to a donation collection basket or bag ~ perhaps in the laundry room ~ to be dropped of to your favourite charity when the time is right. If this isn’t your usual MO then maybe today is the day to have a look through your children’s closet and declutter some items that you know no longer fit.

Saturday – Newspapers and catalogues are also on constant flow through our homes. Once read they are often never viewed again. Recycle the ones you know you won’t be reading again and think twice about setting aside any that you “think” you will look at again.

Sunday – The Refrigerator ~ Just like the pantry this area is filling and emptying on a continuous basis but there is always the odd items that don’t get used up in an appropriate time frame. These items are usually things that have a long used-by date but weren’t enjoyed when you first tried them. There is no point in keeping them because you are unlikely to suddenly decide that they taste good after-all. Do yourself a favour and declutter whatever is in there that isn’t being used on a regular basis.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

We had kept four of these bottles because they have Liam’s (my son) photo on the label. We really don’t need to keep all four so we kept one for him and one for us and the other two went in the recycling bin.

My Gratitude List

• Something I enjoyed ~ Making a batch of ANZAC biscuits (Rolled oat cookies) for my family to enjoy.
• Something Awesome ~ Cooking things what you really have to sink your hands into like cookies and bread dough.
• Something to be grateful for ~ Having just enough room on the airer for two loads of washing. I don’t like to use the dryer unless I have to.
• Something that made me happy ~ Although it is Sunday it is also a long weekend here in Australia so my husband will be home tomorrow as well.
• Something that brought a smile to my face ~ Watching a family laughing and chatting with each other at a bus stop today while I was in a café enjoying a coffee.

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.

This week I thought I would torture you all with some of the decluttering jobs we sometimes dislike the most. If you are lucky they may be the ones you actually enjoy so don’t cringe too much. Good luck!

Monday – Today I would like you to spend a little time decluttering photos. I got adventurous enough to start this task myself on the weekend and I must confess I did begin to see it as a monumental task that once I got a certain way into I felt as if it was hopeless. I pulled myself into line and took some of my own advice and reminded myself to be content with any progress I make. There is a lot yet still to be done but I will tackle in bite size chunks. For now I have weeded out about 200 photos that were really just rubbish but that is only the tip of the iceberg. I am content with my efforts so far though and that is key to not giving up.

Tuesday – I hope you will be willing today to declutter some books and magazines. Even though I have made huge inroads into this task I still find I have to muster up the courage to ignore the “I might need it some day” feeling and be realistic about what is useful and what isn’t.

Wednesday – Declutter something that belongs to someone else in your houshold. Part of this exercise is to ask the person if they are ready to part with the item you choose. Of course you will choose something that you know hasn’t been used for a long time and isn’t likely to be. If the person isn’t prepared to part with the item that is OK, this exercise is as much about practicing the fine art of making declutter requests of someone else.

Thursday – Now that the new season has had a good chance to set in, whether that be Spring or Autumn for you, it is a good time to deploy the backward facing clothes hanger strategy in your wardrobe/closet. That is to turn all the clothes hangers that hold this season’s clothes so the hook is facing backwards on the rod. As you use the clothes, once laundered, put them back in the closet with the hook around the right way. At the end of the season you will be able to identify the items that didn’t get used because the hooks are still facing backwards. These are the items you should declutter at then.

Friday -Find an item that you no longer want and perhaps never did that someone else gave you. Either offer it back to the person or simply declutter it appropriately. The object of this exercise is to build your strength to declutter obligation clutter.

Saturday – Today take some time to have a little rummage through a keepsake box in your home. I (We) have several of these I must admit and it is about time I went through them again. I would like to narrow mine down to one each for the kids (to take with them when they leave) and one for my husband and I.

Sunday – I have given you plenty of tricky tasks to work on already this week so I will let you have today off ~ unless of course you want to find something to declutter freestyle.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

As mentioned for Tuesday’s mini missions I have been tackling the craft books and magazines again. The pile below will be donated to the thrift shop or to the craft group who were kind enough to allow me to have the sale with them recently.

Books & Magazines

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me glad~ I am glad to finally make a decision when to go interstate to visit my daughter and have booked flights. Now I just need to get ahead with the blog so I can maximise my time with her.
• Something Awesome ~ Art, sunshine, walking and hot chocolate all in the one outing.
• Something to be grateful for ~ That Steve was alert and quick to respond when a big white SUV drove right into the path of our car today. Disaster averted.
• Something that made me happy ~ Being woken with a cup of tea.
• Something I found fascinating ~ Watching the tug boats guide a huge coal ship into port today.

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

This really was a simple little declutter mini mission. The box of odds and ends involved had not even been opened in some time and most of what was in it was well and truly redundant. Some bits found their way to the bin, some in the donation box and just a few things were rehoused elsewhere.

As you can see there wasn’t much left after the unnecessary stuff was removed and I soon found new homes for that. Now I have put the box aside for the time being until I decide if I have another use for it or if it should be decluttered too. I always find it difficult to part with useful storage items like this but if I have no use for it then I just don’t need it do I?

Oh! By the way I forgot to mention that my husband was the one who carried out this particular mini mission. I love that he is so involved and as keen to declutter our home as I am.