Do you have trouble with procrastination? Is “later” always the perfect time to do something? Are you stressed, missing deadlines, and constantly playing catch-up? Well…..hello! It’s so nice to meet a kindred spirit! Procrastination has always been one of my worst habits. But I recently finished an online course in “Learning How to Learn” (www.coursera.org) that has taught me something new about procrastination.
Brain researchers have discovered that when we dread doing an activity, the thought registers in the same physical area of our brain where pain registers. So naturally, we do the same thing we do when confronted with pain – we attempt to avoid it. However, the minute we refocus or re-frame our thinking by looking at the first step needed to successfully tackle a project — well, then the thought moves out of the area where pain registers and into an area I call the “getting things done” area. More focus – without the pain association! This has been such a tremendous help to me.
Now, instead of looking at years of files that need to be sorted and thinking, “I’ll get to that first thing tomorrow,” I focus on what my beginning step should be to get the job started. In this case, my beginning step included:
• using a filing crate and creating categories for the files I want to keep
• purchasing a shredder
• making a commitment to go through at least 5 files a day.
This has really jump-started my file de-cluttering process. I usually end up purging and sorting more than 5 files, but if not, I still pat myself on the back for the progress I am making.
Another helpful tip is to use a timer. Our brains tend to function better if we alternate 20-25 minutes of focused activity with a 5 minute break. The key is set your timer for both the activity time and the break time, so your breaks don’t end up getting you side tracked. (Can you tell I am speaking from experience?!) If possible, try to walk during some of your breaks, even if it is just walking in place for those few minutes. The process of moving first your right foot, and then your left (or left and then right!), activates the connection between your right and left brain sections. This helps you think more creatively and effectively.
Re-focusing my thinking on the process instead of the end result has helped me so much. I hope it helps someone else, too!
Jackie
P.S. The “Learning How to Learn” course is being offered again by Coursera. It is free and worth checking out. The course began on October 3, but you can jump in at any time during the four week course. Here is the link: https://www.coursera.org/course/learning

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

I was fortunate to meet up and become friends with Colleen after starting reading her blog.   She has ‘enlightened ‘ me greatly and we laugh a lot. I will try and keep it simple, this is just my take on a bit of my declutter journey.

HABITS

The Habits I have changed over the last few years and the new ones I have embraced in my declutter journey.
No Junk Mail.
A simple sign that attached to my mailbox avoids my house being filled with free newspapers and catalogues from every store in town.
Result ~ massive clutter saver and removes any temptation to go and purchase items in catalogue.
I have extended this to my electronic mail box. Un subscribing from so many things like Cruise Lines, Ikea, Political blogs, Airlines, Blogs of any description and store newsletters. It takes a minute to check my email and I save on downloading potential time wasting junk mail and using up data that I pay for.

Not hitting the Like or Subscribe Button
Result ~ less reading of emails or posts.

Reducing the Number of Bath Towels
With five adults (plus their friends)in the house, the amount of towels to be washed exploded. The towel cupboard was always empty and the pile to be washed was huge. So I reduced the number of towels down to 15, I removed the extra large towels and only have similar size and thickness towels to make washing and drying easy. Giving everyone their own color or pattern towels works well.
Result ~ No large pile of towels to wash. Everyone is now aware that there is a limited supply of towels and they are responsible to wash their own.

Making my bed when I get up of a morning
Result ~ room looks tidy immediately.

Setting the trip meter on the car 
I can usually tell how many miles/kilometres I get on a tank of fuel. I Always fill the car up and reset the meter. I do this because I have a iffy fuel gauge and have been caught running out of fuel. I always fill the car up which saves time. Putting $60 of fuel in once a fortnight is simpler than $20 every few days ( or so it seems)
Result ~ I no longer have to carry a fuel can in car in case I run out of fuel.

Setting an alarm on my phone at the same each month or week helps remind me to do odd jobs around the house. I have terrible memory and usually think of doing things at the wrong time.

Putting things on a hooks
Never underestimate the usefulness of hooks. Behind the door in the bedroom for the clothes that don’t need washing but not going back in the wardrobe.
Behind the door in the bathroom for clothes.
In the kitchen for your bag and keys.
Hooks for the house/car keys. One placed in a convenient place in the kitchen saves time for you and anyone else that needs to use the key.  I have a cousin who refuses to use the hook set I gifted her and she still spends forever searching for her car keys.

Using a lanyard
I keep my house and car keys on a lanyard. I especially like this when I go grocery shopping. The car key is hanging around my neck and is easily used to unlock the car. A lanyard makes it easier to place keys on the hook as well.

Reducing my use of Loyalty Cards
I once had a wallet full of cards for collecting loyalty points. I used a hole punch and put a hole in the corner of them and had them on my car keys for easy access. Then I ended up discarding the rarely used ones and now I only use an actual discount card which is in my wallet. Loyalty statements and emails from these companies are just junk mail for me. Investigate wether the points you earn traveling can be combined with other family members or other cards.
When a credit card is paid off , close it. They have annual fees and are a temptation. I closed a store card five years ago , just before Christmas last year, they sent me a statement ??? showing I had credit on my card. Obviously to induce me to contact them and reinstate my account.

In summary the things that make my habits workable -Hooks, reminders on my phone, less towels, less junk/email/mail, no loyalty cards, a lanyard for my keys and setting the trip meter in my car.
What habits have you embraced?
Cheers.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a spare thing-a-me-jig that you have been keeping just in case.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown

Eco Tip for the Day

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

This post is especially for those with lingering impulses to do one, some or all of the following…

1. Impulse shop.
2. Keep things that you once loved or found very useful even though you no longer do.
3. Have a had time resisting stuff you can be creative with, repurpose or revamp.

Let me begin with a little example not related to clutter. I like a good cup of coffee or tea. I will admit I drink far too much of the stuff. This has been going on all my life. It is a regimented habit too, just like my eating.  generally I’ll have a cup, of either, when I first get up in the morning, another after my breakfast then one at morning-tea around 10am, another at lunch, then one at afternoon-tea around 3pm, another with dinner and then another at supper at 9pm. Mostly tea but usually at least two coffees.

All my life these caffeinated beverages have been accompanied with a meal or a small, usually sweet, snack. However, now as I get older snacking isn’t advisable in order to keep a rein on the waistline. So I try to resist the temptation. I have discovered something about this. The lingering impulse to accompany my cup of tea/coffee with a snack is totally imprinted on my brain. I have been doing it for so long now. The trick is not to have snack food in the house but that doesn’t always work because I can always make a snack with ingredients in the house, and when out there are all sorts of temptation.

But here is the good news. I have also discovered that that lingering impulse only exists during the preparation stage of the routine. As I make my cup of tea/coffee I get the urge to acquire the snack. If resisted the impulse disappears the instant I sit down and start drinking my beverage. Gone, just like that.

My husband discovered a similar impulse when driving home from our son’s the other day. As we drove past the street we used to live on he got a sudden brain impulse that he had gone the wrong way.

Here is where the clutter comes in.

Impulse shopping can be hard to resist. You have done it so often in the past and it always feels good to acquire something new and exciting. Therefore your impulse is to ignore common sense and give in to the impulse. However is you can ignore the impulse and walk away you will probably not give the item another thought once you get home. Money saved and clutter avoided.

We have all had trouble parting with things we once loved or found very useful but don’t anymore. When we inspect the item during our decluttering tasks the fond memories and or appreciation for them resurfaces. So we tend to put them back and go in search for something else we would find easier to part with, something more mundane. Instead of giving into the impulse to keep the item try being realistic about it and let it go. I can almost guarantee once it is out of your house you will never give it another thought.

Now if you are like me and have a hard time walking past stuff you think you could use in a creative way, revamp or repurpose, then have faith. That desire in you to create or revive is as ingrained in you as the need to breath. That is regardless of the fact that you may not of participated in such activities for a long time. Seeing the potential in things is a positive trait. And, like all the other situation above, the trick is to resist the impulse in that moment and walk away. It is likely that you will not give it another thought and, if you do, you might also realistically think ~ “I would never have got around to doing something with it anyway.”.

In summary – these impulses are  as fleeting as they are inevitable. They may also never leave you and the best you can do is ignore them in the moment and they will be gone. Do you know of any impulses like this that you have? Share them with us and how you manage to resist them or not.

Today’s Mini Mission

Eco Tip for the Day

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

Anyone who has been following my blog for a while knows that I don’t talk much about organising. It is my experience that getting rid of a bunch of unused stuff makes it easier to organise the useful stuff left behind, so I focus on the decluttering side of organising.

However rearranging an area in your home can be a great catalyst to letting go of the stuff that doesn’t fit with what you expect as the end result of this task. Being bogged down in the same old, same old can be energy sapping and blind you to the stuff laying unused everyday right under your nose.

When I was a child it was not unusual to come home to find my bedroom rearranged, or indeed, not even where it used to be. I always found this refreshing. Like moving house without actually moving. “A change is as good as a holiday.” so they say. My mother obviously thought so too because she did this often enough that I remember it as one of her loveable quirks.

My sister-in-law, who has just been visiting me, told me she was planning on doing a bit of a furniture reshuffle when she got home. She was open to a little decluttering in the process. She said that it had only just occurred to her that she could use the furniture she already had to change things up a bit and sounded excited to get started.

Even though the philosophy behind one a day decluttering is to take it slow and not disrupt the household with a major reshuffle, sometimes that is exactly what is needed. The best way to approach this is to pump yourself up with a vision of what you hope to achieve, devise a plan of attack and throw yourself in wholeheartedly. Don’t look at it as a chore but as an adventure. It is amazing how much more energy is generated when one is excited about the task ahead.

Do you have an area of your home that would benefit from a reshuffle? It doesn’t have to be a whole room, perhaps just a closet, a work space or some kitchen cupboards. Any area that could be more functional or pleasurable than it is right now and get rid of some stagnant stuff in the process.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something made from fabric. An item of clothing, lines, raggedy or napkins, handkerchieves…

Eco Tip for the Day

It is better to refuse than to reuse or recycle. Imagine if everyone refused to use plastic bags. How much less trash would that generate.

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

Cindy

I went to high school with a girl named Helen, who was extremely petite and wore a very tiny shoe size, 5 I believe. In college, Helen and I lived in the same dorm. Her room was remarkable because it contained the largest shoe collection in the dorm, probably in the entire school. Why did Helen own so many shoes? Because she wore a tiny shoe, many stores would only get one in her size when they ordered a style. Helen was constantly afraid that she wouldn’t be able to find shoes that fit. As a result, she bought every shoe she found in her size. Clearly, the idea that there was a shortage of size 5 shoes was all in Helen’s mind, since she had several dozen pairs stored in their boxes in her very space restricted dorm room.

Years later, I was girlfriends with a very tall, long-limbed woman named Lanette. Her husband was even taller and even longer limbed. Lanette was an every weekend, very systematic garage saler. Now because they had such long arms and legs, Lanette and her husband understandably disliked wearing too short shirts and pants. As a result, Lanette bought every shirt and every pair of pants that she found every Saturday morning that were long enough. The result? A wardrobe stuffed full of clothing. There was no real shortage of long-enough clothing, except in Lanette’s mind.

Are you guilty of creating a shortage that exists only in your mind? Do you have an excess of toiletries, food in your pantry, clothing, collectibles, or great deal you bought on sale because, you believe, there may not be enough, so you better grab some now, over and over again? I challenge you to declutter at least one of these “rare” items today and to start talking to yourself about how there is, in fact, no shortage of material goods. The store can store your extra food and toiletries; a person can only wear so many items of clothing; with the Internet, there is no material good that cannot be found. Don’t panic, don’t buy. The shortage is only in your mind.

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

Cindy

I have been thinking a lot about efficiency recently. We are constantly told by ourselves, our friends, and the media that we don’t have enough time. Is this true, or are we just deeply inefficient and distracted?

In my house, during down times, I have notices that all four of us have our “go to” strategies, none of which are very productive: I check my email and Facebook for the millionth time; Clara listens to music and plays solitaire; Audra watches TV; Dan fools around on his computer.

All electronic, all non-productive.

My girlfriend Sherri addressed this on Facebook recently. (Okay, I realize that does seem a bit ironic.)  “No thank you “Yammer” I do not need an app to help me get things done FASTER. I need an app to slow things down. Oh wait, I have that! It’s called my frontal lobe! I can use it to make decisions about what is important, decide to turn off the gadgets, and tune in to my family, friends, God and nature! All with no monthly fees or penalties! Count me in!”

I have been trying, very consciously, to do two things: Sit around less and fill the small gaps in time.

Sitting around fooling around on the computer – what a waste of my life’s most valuable resource – time. Now when I truly have business to do that involves the computer, I sit at the dining room table. It turns out that our dining room chairs, which have rattan seats, really aren’t that comfortable for extended sitting and having that rattan pattern pressing uncomfortably into my thighs keeps me focused on plowing through the business that I need to attend to, rather than drifting off into the No Man’s Land that the Internet can be.

The other thing I’ve been trying to do is to fill small amounts of time. It’s like me to pace around feeling aggravated while waiting for someone to brush their teeth before we can leave. Now, I try to fill that time by doing something: wiping the kitchen counter, putting away some laundry, loading the dishwasher. I’m still by the door ready to leave, but I’m not just pacing and feeling irritable.

Yesterday it was ridiculously hot. Even in the house, I felt hot. I was sitting (just sitting) in my favorite chair feeling hot. After 15 minutes, I consciously decided that I was wasting my time, and that I could be hot and get something accomplished, or I could just be hot. I got up and got some things done. In fact, I probably cooled myself a bit because part of what I did involved wiping the kitchen counters, and the cool water felt nice.

Consciously trying to be more efficient can apply to any task you want to accomplish. Often we wait for a big block of time before we tackle a project. As Colleen has often said, decluttering a thing a day only takes 10 minutes, although frankly, I think it only has to take about 2.

What could you get done if you decided to be more efficient today?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter electric kitchen tools that aren’t that useful to you. Suggestions ~ Grater,food processor, blender, mixer, juicer, coffee machine, coffee grinder, can opener, pepper grinder, bread machine, ice-cream maker, donut cooker, popcorn machine, panini press… this list could go on forever. After going through my kitchen last week I have found that I have the usual suspects ~ toaster and kettle ~ plus I also have a hand blender with one accessory, a coffee grinder and a panini press. All these items are used regularly enough to be safe from decluttering for now. 

Eco Tip For The Day

When buying bars of soap, by ones without wrappers or multipacks that come in a simple cardboard box. Every little bit of plastic saved from landfill counts.

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

Cindy

This post first appeared in September 2012. Since I am in the thick of plowing through the Lost and Found and checking the cleanliness of all the uniforms from the uniform exchange closet, it seemed like a good time to reprint it.

At the end of every school year, I volunteer to take home all the lost and found from my daughters’ school. I look through it, sort it, wash it, fold it, and give it to charity. The amount of lost and found (or as the Head of School calls it, “Lost and Sometimes Found”) is absolutely amazing.  At the end of this school year, I had 20 expensive metal water bottles (one still had a clear $25 price tag on it), a dozen lunch bags in good condition, probably 50 items of clothing worthy of the thrift store, and 5 or 6 coats, including one very nice Columbia brand coat.

Such waste!

Colleen once wrote a post, which I cannot locate, about “What if I had just one?” Just one pencil, just one coat, just one pair of scissors, just one water bottle and one lunch sack?

Overbuying has to be part of the explanation for this phenomena. In my house, the girls have two water bottles each – one large and one small, and they each have one lunch bag. If the bag doesn’t come home, they take their lunch in a plastic sack, which in itself is a reminder to check the lost and found. But if you overbuy, then each item has less value and less chance of staying with its owner.

When my daughters first starting attending school where they had to provide their own supplies, I was absolutely horrified by the list: 2 boxes of 8 markers, 6 glue sticks, 4 packs of post-it notes, and my winner for most ridiculous: 48 pencils. 48 pencils times 15 girls equals 720 pencils per school year per classroom! How many third-world classrooms could be outfitted with 720 pencils? I thought it was because the girls went to private school, but my public school friends told me that their lists were similarly excessive.

Why would you value a single pencil when there are 719 more in your classroom?

It’s so easy to overbuy when things are “2 for 1″ or “Buy 1, get 1 at half price”? I know I used to do it too. But it’s just not necessary. It’s bad for the environment, bad for your check book, and devalues each and every item, making each one more likely to be lost, discarded, or shoved to the back of the cabinet.

Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter something in an area that is overcrowded to the point of causing disfunction.

Eco Tip For The Day

As adults it is our job to teach our children to conserve power and water. If you raise your children with good habits now conservation will come naturally to them when they become the adults themselves.

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

Decluttering is all about change.

• Changing the way you think about stuff: It isn’t important. It can trigger memories but doesn’t contain them. It usually becomes clutter eventually no matter how excited you were at acquiring it in the first place. It doesn’t raise peoples’ opinions of you. It doesn’t make you happy in the long term. You have to work to acquire it, which may rob you of precious time spent taking care of those and that which are actually important to you. 
• Changing long formed ideas and habits: You are not obliged to keep stuff no matter how it was acquired ~ gifts, heirlooms, rewards, awards, prises, souvenirs… . You are also not obliged to accept stuff ~ gifts, freebies, special offers… . You can express your wishes, ahead of time, to those close to you that you would rather not receive gifts and learn to say no when people offer you other things that you don’t need. It is OK to say no politely.
• Changing your shopping habits: Replacing what you are decluttering will put you back to square one in no time. I have found that resisting the temptation to purchase things that aren’t necessary can soon become a habit that requires no effort or cause any disappointment.
• Changing your mind about what need is: Chances are most of that stuff you are afraid to get rid of, in case you need it one day, was never really needed in the first place and probably never will. Don’t be confused between need and want.

If you aren’t prepared to change, then the chances are, your attempt to declutter will fail or your decluttering will be a never ending process. All these changes can be made gradually, you don’t have to go cold turkey or become a new person overnight. The changes in me during my decluttering process have been gradual and painless. Remembering all the while that these are all changes for the better makes it easier.

Are you ready to change? Have you noticed the changes in yourself already? Tell us about it.

Oh I forgot to mention. The result of all these changes can be a beautiful, wonderful, simplifying, economical, time saving and liberating thing.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some garden related items. Tools you don’t use, empty plant pots, bits of wood or wire that are rotting or rusted, seeds you are never going to plant… .

Eco Tip for the Day

Try changing your usual wash cycles to ones a little shorter and more economical. You might be surprised that your clothes come out just as clean.

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

I shudder at the idea of going back to my old ways of having stuff, more stuff, stored stuff, collected stuff and yet more stuff…..and then being very surprised that the house is full of stuff!

But in spite of all that, I still keep the strangest of things. I don’t know why, there is no logic to it, but I have difficulties getting rid of empty cardboard boxes and shopping bags, especially if they are from particularly nice clothes store or from a surf wear shop.

There is a wee corner of my brain that insists cardboard boxes are useful. Maybe they are, maybe they’re not, but I can get as many as I want any time that I want from my local Pak’n’Save. I have no plans to store anything and no need to carry anything in the foreseeable future but I faithfully stack a small pile of them in the garage until finally the rational part of my brain turns up a few days later and breaks them down for recycling.

Shopping bags. I’m not talking about supermarket bags or ones from the mainstream stores, but the rather nice looking ones. I carefully fold them and place them inside a bag in my craft cupboard. There is only ever 5-10 sitting there and every so often I decide that today is the day I will declutter them, but it just doesn’t happen. The only reason I can think of is that when I was a girl my mum used to do the same thing.

At the time the economy was suffering under high inflation, extreme interest rates and a government introduced compulsary car-less day once a week to combat fuel costs. Our town was small and this was before the era of cheap ‘Made In China’ clothing, so mum sewed what she could of our clothing and we accepted and donated hand-me-down clothes, it didn’t bother us and was widely acceptable in our community.

So a pretty shopping bag represented luxury and they were probably still a new thing as I recall a drawer full of folded up paper bags used for everything from lining baking tins to art projects to lighting the fire to holding rubbish. Wherever possible, we passed on our hand-me-down clothes in a nice plastic carrier bag with a shop logo on it. Why I don’t know, as it was only being carried from house to car and car to house and wouldn’t actually be seen by the greater public, but it seemed to be the tradition.

I mentioned this story to a friend over the weekend and she got a smile on her face and told me that she keeps the paper flour sacks, to line baking tins for making fruit cake. The thing is that she has never made a fruit cake. Her mother and grandmother were fruit cake legends but the baking gene completely skipped her, but she still feels a need to keep these paper flour sacks.

Another friend religiously saves seeds from pumpkins and dries them on the kitchen window sill as her mother used to dry hers for planting, but my friend lives in an apartment block and has never had a garden.

So why do we carry on these little traditions from yester year? Who knows? Strangely I feel more of an attachment to these pretty plastic carrier bags than I do towards many other items that I haven’t thought twice about getting rid of.

So what is my strategy to deal with this? Well, the first step is to make sure that no more come into the house, although this is fairly easy as I am not the shopping fiend that I used to be but also to politely decline a plastic carrier bag or if on a shopping trip to utilise one bag for all purchases. Colleen will also advocate that this is good for the environment. I actually had to decline one yesterday – shopping for a school bag – yes, a bag for the bag!

And as for the existing bags? Well, I have a number of items on trademe (like ebay) at the moment, and I will honour my mum’s tradition of passing on clothes and use these for packaging rather than buying postal bags. Ironically this isn’t a cheaper option but it will save me from buying another plastic bag, while these hide in the cupboard.

So does anyone else out there find themselves keeping the strangest of things and if so do you know why?

Today’s Mini Mission

Stationery was another category that I once had a weakness for. I had cute paper, cute paper clips, cute pens, cute erasers, cute push pins and a selection of ordinary stuff so I could save the cute stuff for good.  When the children are in school one does need much more of this stuff but I found that I had so much that three years after they left I gave the excess away because it just wasn’t getting used up like I thought it would. Also as the tech age took over even a little bit of this was too much because we digitised most of our bills etc. Evaluate your stationery and your need for them and declutter the items you have too many of or have no use for at all.

Eco Tip for the Day

Decide what you need from the refrigerator before opening the door. Standing there with the door open while you think about what you want to eat just lets the cold air out. Then the fridge has to work harder and waste electricity to regain its optimal temperature level.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

If you, or your children, are fans of the Harry Potter books, you are probably familiar with Mad Eye Moody and his admonishment – given freely to young and old wizards and witches – Constant Vigilance!

Constant Vigilance! is what I need when I manage to clear an area that has previously been a black hole. (You know those – places where all things seem to gather and nothing ever leaves.)

My desk has been giving me nothing but trouble for the longest time: Sometimes I can’t even use it because the surface is so cluttered. I hate it! I finally did The Big Sweep and cleaned everything off the top. My goodness it looks lovely, but it needs Constant Vigilance! Everyone – including me – thinks that it’s still the “Drop Your Junk Here” place. The “Don’t Know Where It Goes? Put It Here!” place.

I am patrolling my desk multiple times a day. Multiple times a day I am relocating things off my desk and to their rightful home. Multiple times a day I am wondering why in the world my desk attracts so much junk. But I am keeping at it with CONSTANT VIGILANCE! I want my desk to stay nice, and until everyone gets out of the habit of using it as a storage locker, I must patrol it repeatedly.

Do I feel discouraged about this Constant Vigilance? No, not really because I know that it’s like the training wheels on a kid’s bike. I need it now, but later, I’ll be able to set it free.

Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter an old piece of equipment, possibly work related from days gone by.

Today’s Declutter Item

Unfortunately the new Media Uploader for WordPress isn’t working so there is no photo for today.  Today’s decluttered item is another 30 photographs. I am making great progress with the photo decluttering.

Eco Tip for the Day

Do you throw away that last little piece of soap when it gets too hard to handle? No need to waste it just join it to the new bar. Every little thing saved from waste is a good thing.

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