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 we are going to declutter some items that we could digitise rather than keep the tangible form of. This should free up some space without actually getting rid of the item altogether.
Monday – Declutter some household appliance manuals. Choose a couple and google the item to see if there is a copy of the manual on line. If so throw away the paper copy.
Tuesday – If you have a file of paper bank statements declutter some, if not all, of them today. All of this information can be accessed by online banking. Set yours up and begin getting rid of all that redundant paperwork. It is so unlikely that you will ever need any of it, digital or tangible, so stop hoarding it in your filing cabinet. Before you know it you may find you can declutter the filing cabinet as well.
Wednesday – Digitise receipts for things you either need for insurance or warranty purposes. Chances are you will also never need them in either in digital or original form. Check with your insurance company if it makes you feel better about decluttering them.
Thursday – Digitise some keepsake items by either scanning or taking a digital photo of them and saving it to your computer, or better still a cloud. Items that you rarely or never look at should be easier to convince yourself to let go of, so begin with a couple of them.
Friday – If you have any bills that could be switched to online billing do that today. This will reduce the paperwork coming into your home and also cuts down on paper waste and transportation which is good for the environment.
Saturday – If you still have a home phone take some time today to consider switching to purely cellular. Why have extra big clunking phones taking up electricity and valuable space in your home when smaller more versatile cellular phones can more than suffice. (This isn’t really a digital tip but close enough)
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
Save electricity by not turning on electrical appliances, like irons, hair straighteners etc, too long before you use them and by not leaving them on while you decide to take a break during the task.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow