I received an email from Christie this week asking for some advice. I’ll launch right in with her email, followed by my advice, and then I would love you all to add your thoughts on the subject. Hopefully somewhere among all that advice there will be the spark to help ignite a flame of determination in her to let go of these items standing in the way of a beautiful uncluttered life.

Christie’s email

Hi Colleen. I am a single mother with a long list of things to do…always. Life is a process I know and I can’t tackle everything at one time. I try to heed my own advice I give my daughter….practice your patience. But so many things always need to be done….that I end up shutting down and waste time…does that make sense? I need to declutter and organize many things, which I am highly capable of, but there are a few things I just simply do not know how to deal with.

One of the main things that takes up space is greeting cards. A lot of them. Why do I hang on to these? I think I have 80% of the greeting cards that have been given to me in my 45 years of life. Gasp! And now I am hanging on to the ones my daughter gets. And they are a mess. Boxes of unorganized cards. Why? What to do? I simply cannot wrap my head around it. And google has given me nothing.

and then there are magazines. i am a chef. and i have years upon years of Bon appetit and gourmet magazines. why? ugh. i can’t make myself throw them out. there has to be a better way.

I desperately would love any suggestions you can throw my way. I am drowning in self loathing at this point and need to pull my head up and provide my precious daughter a better example to live by. Much thanks to you in advance and much thanks to you for your blog. 🙂

My response to Christie’s email was this…

My first advice is if you have other clutter that is easier to part with then work on that first. I always advise people to leave the hard stuff until last, at which time you tend to be more ruthless. The joy and feeling of success generated by letting go of other stuff will spur you one to get rid of stuff you never thought you would.

My advice on the cards and magazines, once you get to them, is simple. It is clear to me from reading your email that you have already decided that these are things that you don’t want to keep. Decluttering is all about getting rid of things you don’t want to keep. These things are obviously causing you stress and you don’t care that much about them so not only are they wasting space in your home they are also affecting you negatively. Just another reason to let them go. What you are doing is keeping them out of habit and obligation. Life is a beautiful thing, the way it changes for us in waves. What we must do is ride those waves not try to swim against them. The magazines are a thing of the past, a past you are obviously reluctant to let go of. However any information contained within them can be easily found on the internet. And the beauty of the internet that it is so vast and yet it takes up so little space in your home. Go digital and get rid of that collection of dust collecting, stress inducing  magazines. Just put them right in the recycling bin. I’d like to bet that once they are gone you will wonder why you had such trouble letting them go. It is kind of like pulling off a bandaid. There is way more time and agony involved in the procrastination than there ever will be once the deed is done.

As for the cards it seems to me that they would be a mix of sentimental and obligational clutter. Ones that mean a lot to you and ones the you just keep because you feel you should. Well let me tell you that you don’t need to keep anything you only feel you should. Most people don’t give cards or gifts with the obligation that we should keep them together. They are merely a symbol of their affection for us in the here and now. Sometimes cards and gifts are even given purely out of obligation and their is no sentiment involved at all. So break this task down, it will mean double handling but that will be better for you phycological state. Go through them all, even if that is just a handful at a time when you have nothing better to do. Pick out the ones that mean something to you and put them aside for now and throw away all the ones that are pretty much meaningless at this point in your life. They can also go straight into the recycling bin or donated to a craft group that recycles old cards into new to raise money for charity. Sometimes donating them makes it easier to reconcile getting rid of them but it also makes it a little more difficult to get rid of them quickly. Once again a quick google search can prove very fruitful. You can then deal with the more sentimental cards at a later date or also go digital with them now by scanning them into your computer and getting rid of the hard copies. I personally would put them aside until you feel ready to deal with the further.

Here is a link to the post where I decluttered my greeting cards.

http://www.365lessthings.com/keepsake-clutter/

Now it is up to you, Christie’s fellow readers, to lend your advice to her situation. Thank you all in advance.

Today’s Mini Mission

And how about those book shelves ~ I haven’t picked on them for a while ~ how about you visit the elephant book graveyard and choose five books you are unlikely ever to reread and declutter them.

“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

Just like my decluttering approach you can gradually improve your carbon footprint by implementing a new environmentally friendly routine into your life on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be a chore but a fun challenge to not only help the planet but quite often it turns out will also save you money.

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

As anyone who has been reading here for a while knows, I have decluttered a lot of craft stuff over the last four years. My goodness, it actually has been more than four years now that I have been blogging about decluttering. Anyway, I had a tonne of paper crafting supplies which I reduced down to an amount I was happy with. I had designated a space I wanted them to fit into and achieved that goal. You can go to my Before and After page for a look if you haven’t already seen the results.

I did not declutter them all my supplies I spent very little time using them for the last few years. This is because I have always been a crafter and always will be. I love making stuff, creating with my own two hands. Both my parents are good with their hands, making and mending and it seem to run in the family. So I knew that one day my attention would return more fully to my creating, so there was no way I was going to let the best of my craft stuff go.

Well that time has come. I got creative again after christmas when I made my yearly supply of birthday cards. Then one day while taking a walk I saw a notice in an art space window. We have a project happening here in Newcastle called “The Renew Newcastle Project” the concept is that the owners of empty retail spaces loan their space to this project. Artist apply for the spaces and if lucky get to set up a gallery/shop there at next to no cost. So one of these spaces occupied by the NANA gallery had a notice in their window looking for people to volunteer to do four hour shifts manning their gallery. In return the volunteer is able to display and sell their own works. I jumped at the change and have been creating and selling my handmade cards there for about six weeks now. Each week my cards have become more and more popular.

Now don’t get too excited, I sell them really cheaply so I am not making a fortune. But I now have an outlet to sell what I make. This means that I am ploughing through my overstocked craft supplies at a faster rate every week. Decluttering, making money and loving every minute of being creative. I am also really enjoying the four hour shift, interacting with the other makers and the public. I make do with what I have on hand, actually designing around that, so that I am not adding to stocks of paper, ribbon, embellishments, etc. I do buy white & black cardstock as this is the base for many of the cards and also small tools but there is way more going out the door than is coming in. And what has come in is only stuff I have an immediate use for. No more buying stuff just because I like the look of it and “might use it some day”. That is what gets most crafter in a cluttered mess. That and having a limited outlet for the finished product.

So if you are a crafter, take it from me, only buy what you are going to use immediately. Only buy tools that are versatile and are guaranteed to be used over and over and over again. Know your own style and don’t buy random supplies and tools because they seem interesting. Consider the purchase for a good while to be sure it meets that criteria. And let go of all those things that you haven’t used for years and aren’t likely to. There are old folks homes, craft groups, schools, daycare centres etc etc etc, that will be more than happy to take your unwanted stuff off your hands.

Joyful creating and happy decluttering to all those crafters out there.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item that is only an alternative to another similar item that you now realise you don’t need multiples of.

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t leave tasks linger for so long that you have to redo them such as drying the washing or folding it. This can cause you to have to waste more electricity rewashing and ironing. Need I also mention your wasted time and wear and tear on your appliances.

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

Today’s Decluttered Item
Some poster size photos that we have no wall space for.

On our daily walks by the beach my husband and I pass by a little rock pool area. As we walked by the other day I wondered something of Steve that not one minute later he put into words ~ “Do you sometimes regret decluttering the snorkelling gear?” After laughing and telling him I had just wondering if he though that, my unreserved response was no.

You see we had had that snorkelling gear for at least twenty years when I finally decluttered it. It hadn’t been used for about nineteen of those twenty years. The fact is that if I hadn’t began this declutter mission, and let go of all the things we didn’t use, then we would likely never have fitted into our lovely little apartment near the ocean.

Peoples’ lifestyles continually change and if we kept everything because we thought that life would go full circle and we might need things again and again then we would be so bogged down in stuff that life would likely become stagnant. Now that is something I would regret.

Today’s Mini Mission

Start a trial separation of costume jewellery items.

Eco Tip for the Day

Clothes don’t usually need to go in the wash after just one use. Wearing them at least twice will save on laundry detergent, electricity and your time and energy. (This does not apply to underpants. 😉 )

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

My daughter, who is 13, is starting to take ballroom dance lessons. I’m happy for her, but this new passion has caused my first case of declutter regret. Yes, after 3 years of decluttering (June 1 was my anniversary), I finally caught the bug. It took someone else to cure me.

You see, my husband and I used to ballroom dance, as well. We took lessons for 4 hours a week for 2 years and went to many dances up until my new dancer was born. I held onto my dance shoes – a pair of black practice shoes and a pair of gold performance shoes – for years. Dance shoes are pampered and get very little actual wear, so they can last for quite a long time, and the basic styles haven’t changed in the past decade. I kept mine and kept mine, even though giving birth to two children changed my foot size, and I could no longer wear them. Finally, during decluttering, I gave them to a charity that holds a large garage sale every year and hoped that a dancer would find them among all the regular shoes.

Now my daughter, although only 13, is almost fully grown, and she could probably wear those shoes. I’ve told three or four people, “Oh if I’d only kept my dance shoes.” I’ve thought to myself “They didn’t take up much room. I could have kept them.”

Yesterday, my friend whom I helped move, said, “Cindy, you just can’t think like that. If you hung onto everything you might ever use, you’d be buried.”  A lightbulb came on! I was indulging in “what if I need it one day” thinking. How could I possibly have know that one day my daughter would ballroom dance? It’s not a part of mine and Dan’s lives anymore (except at the occasional wedding), so how could I anticipate that she would need them? Plus you might have noticed I said they “might” have fit her. I don’t know what size they were! She wears about the size now that I did before she was born. Yes, they might have fit her. But they might not. What if I’d kept everything she might want some day? I’d be surrounded by Barbies and Breyer horses, books, art pads, and on and on.

Better to let all that go, then to surround myself “just in case.”

Today’s Mini Mission

Clean the outside of, and behind your fridge. If you have stuff on your fridge this will all have to come off first in order to do the job properly. If you have an old fashioned fridge with the element visible you should also gently vacuum this element. Once again this task ought to be executed about every three months and the less there is to move each time the easier the job will be.

Eco Tip For The Day

Discover your local food shops. Check out their sustainability ethics. If their standards are good use them, and since you could get there by foot you can also save on transport.

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

Here are some questions to ask yourself if you have a lot of nicknacks adorning your home. Usually a home full of nicknacks also has additional furniture to house those nicknacks. Pedestals and little tables for them to sit on, china cabinets and bookshelves crammed with them, open 3D frames hanging on the wall containing more tiny bits and pieces. Just the thought of it all makes me wheeze and sneeze. So here are my questions…

• How important can each and every item possibly be to you when they are crammed onto shelves where you can’t even see half of them because they are hidden behind one another?
• How often do you actually take the time to look at each and every one of these items?
• How clean is your home on a daily basis when there are so many of these items that you can only bring yourself to dust them once a year?
• How much time and energy do you even have to devote to maintaining your home in this state?
• How easy is your home to clean properly when so much wall and floor space is covered with the furniture or props holding these items?
• How much money has been spent acquiring these items while renovations and repairs have gone begging on the structure you live in?
• How much more could you enjoy and appreciate your favourites among these items if the overall quantity were fewer and less crowded?
• If you died tomorrow would you really want your loved ones to have to deal with all your stuff in their time of grief?

If you do have a desire to reduce your collection in order to make cleaning day easier but you are having a hard time letting go it is possible to desensitise yourself from this anxiety. All you have to do is choose an item that you care the least about among the collection and let it go. If you feel any pangs after parting with an item remind yourself of your goal of easing your cleaning burden. Give yourself a day or two to establish the fact that you have barely noticed an item’s absence and then choose another least loved item and again let it go. Continue on with this method and I am sure you will end up letting go of more items than you ever thought you would.

Rearrange and spruce up your collection as you progress so as to have it looking the best it can. Bringing all your favourites to the fore.

Hopefully you will advance so far with this task that you start to empty furniture items and can also remove them to create open spaces which are easy to clean. Just thinking about all the balls of fluff, dust mites and possibly even mould and roaches that can hide in all these nooks and crannies makes me cringe. And although that may sound a little melodramatic it is entirely possible. In Australia these are also places where venomous spiders (Redbacks and Whitetails) can lurk.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter any old manuals or warranty papers that are out of date or you no longer have the items for. This is one of those areas of paperwork that builds up over time. Be vigilant because paperwork can be very daunting to deal with when allowed to accumulate.

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.

The theme for tomorrow’s post is Someday so I thought I might as well make it the theme for the mini missions this week as well. I won’t elaborate too much on someday because I will cover that in full tomorrow. Simply put though, holding stuff, or worse still buying stuff, for someday is a major source of clutter for most homes. The mini missions will try to identify areas where this is a particular problem.

Monday – Clothing can of course be one of the most common sources of “someday” clutter. “Someday… “…I am going to be thinner…”, “…I might regain the weight I lost…”, “…I will have just the right occasion to wear this…”, “…I might get back into the workforce…” … and need these clothes. They could also be outdated by the time someday comes. Declutter a couple of items of clothing you are saving for someday.

Tuesday – Declutter a few books that you set aside years ago to read someday but you still haven’t got around to it.

Wednesday – Declutter a large item you might have in the garage, attic or basement that you have kept handy in case you will have a use for it someday. Perhaps and item of furniture, a sporting item you used to use, a restoration project…

Thursday – Declutter a recipe book or two that you only ever use one or two recipes from, while the rest you have been going to try someday.  Scan the recipes you do use and donate the book. Recipe clippings are another thing that accumulate over time while someday never seems the day to actually arrive to try them. Do yourself a favour and get your recipes from the internet in the future when you are feeling adventurous enough to give something new a try.

Friday – Get rid of a craft project you keep promising yourself you are going to finish someday. Donate it to a thrift shop as-is or find a local craft group who might be happy to take it off your hands. Learn what your habits are in the respect of finishing projects. If you have a habit of not finishing large project stick to smaller ones in the future. And also commit to not buying craft supplies that you only plan on using someday.

Saturday – If you are saving things for the kids to take off your hands someday check that the kids actually want them. If not you are free to let them go.

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

March Habit Changing Challenge

How did you go with hanging up your clothes last month, well I hope! This month the challenge is to leave your living space neat and tidy before going to bed at night. By living space I mean where your family spends their relaxation time together ~ lounge room, family room, rumpus room etc. If you have children it might be best to do the tidy up before they go to bed as they should be involved with tidying up any messes they are responsible for. No bedtime stories if they don’t clear away first might be a new rule. Then have a last whip around before the adults turn in for the night as well. Perhaps the children can also be responsible for pointing out if the adults don’t hold up your end of the bargain. Your punishment might be to have to clean up after them the next night. This will certainly help to keep you on target.

Eco Tip for the Day

Schedule one night a week to use up leftover vegetables and bits of food in your fridge and/or pantry. Stews, curries, soups and pasta dishes are a great option for this exercise of avoiding waste. My husband makes a pot of curry every Sunday immediately after we get home from doing the grocery shopping. He grabs out all the leftover veggies from the fridge before we pack away the incoming groceries. He packs up the curry in individual containers and takes it to work for lunch for the week. And no he doesn’t mind having the same thing day in day out.

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

Cindy

My in-laws are visiting, and I was thinking about my father-in-law. He really likes to do home improvement projects, to work on his own vehicle, and he’s done some truly outstanding woodworking projects.

My husband is not really like his father. No one else I know works on their own car, my husband can only do the simplest of woodworking, and although he does home improvement projects, he doesn’t love it. Yet at least some of his clutter reflects who he thinks he should be (see his Dad, above) and not who he really is.

The fancy name for this is “aspirational clutter,” but I’m going to call it “should” clutter because it defines who you think you should be.

You may have a bookshelf full of classic books, when really all you enjoy reading is popular fiction. However, you think you should be a person who owns, collects, reads, discusses, and enjoys classic books.

You may have a sewing machine – maybe even a sewing cabinet – and not even know how to thread the machine. But you think you should be the sort of person who is either so crafty or so frugal that you have need for a machine and all its accoutrements.

You have tools for home maintenance or automobile repair, but no interest, aptitude, or knowledge for doing these things, but you think that a “good” person should do their own home and car repairs.

You have craft or hobby supplies – probably a lot of them – for crafts that you’re sure you should try. The fact that you’ve owned them for more than a dozen years and haven’t tried the craft yet is only making you feel worse for not being what you should.

Stop “shoulding” on yourself. It’s nonsense. There is nothing you should be, just what you are. You are under no obligation to continue owning a bunch of items that simply remind you how insufficient you are in becoming what you (or maybe someone else) thought you should be. Move on! Sell it, give it away, return it to its owner, and free up your physical and emotional space for becoming what you are.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter any item you haven’t used in six months. This could be a tool, dishes, some other not very useful to you item or  even an ingredient. You could do a use it up declutter on that ingredient. These items are usually found underneath useful things in drawers and in the mirky depths behind everything else in the cupboards.

Eco Tip for the Day

 Natural way to clean silver ~ http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/natural-way-clean-silver-3121.html. Warning:- It always pays to test any cleaning product or suggestion on an inexpensive, easily replaced item first.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

I revisted the archives from September 1, 2010 for this post. It was titled “Cindy’s Take on Avoiding Recluttering.” This time I have published it with gift buying in mind. As appropriate, insert “the gift recipient” in place of “I”

It’s bound to happen sometime; you’re going to have to break down and buy something. Before you do, consider these factors:

1. Do I need it?
2. Do I want it?
3. Did I come into the store looking for this item, or did it just catch my eye?
4. Would I be criticized if my spouse or family members knew that I had purchased this?
5. Can I afford it? If I cannot pay for it now, should I buy it?
6. Can I wait a week and see if I still believe I need to buy this?
7. I am buying it “just to try it”? If I am, is there some other way that I could try it first?
8. Can I borrow it or rent it instead?
9. Can I buy it used?
10. Can I share the purchase of this item with someone else? (Lawn tools, exercise equipment, a bicycle, or magazine subscriptions all fall into this category.)
11. Have I researched this purchase? Is this item durable and does it do the things I want?
12. Will this item be easy use, maintain, and keep organized? Does this item perform more than one function?
13. Do I have something at home that will perform the same function? Will it replace one or more other things that I already have? Am I willing to move those other things along? Do I truly need to replace those things?
14. Do I have a place to store this item? Do I know that it fits?
15. Is it in a color or style that I will continue to enjoy? Does it fit with my décor or the other things in my wardrobe?
16. What is it made of? Where was it made? Are the components healthy for me and the environment? Is it labeled for recycling? Is it made of recycled parts?
17. Can I sell it when I no longer want it?

Today’s Mini Mission

Roundup all pens and pencils that are scattered throughout your home. Once together declutter any excess.

Today’s Declutter Item

One has to wonder why we still have a snowboard even though we have been back in Australia for over five years now and the person this was once the right size for is now no doubt too big for it.

Snowboard

Eco Tip for the Day

Consider donating excess pens and pencils in your home to a local school or take them to be used in your workplace. This will reduce the need for these places to purchase new ones while decluttering excess from your home. They are likely to dry up and become useless before they are ever used otherwise. I wonder how many pens succumb to this fate every year. Also try to remember not to accidentally acquire more. I almost walked off with a pen from the post office last week after address a parcel I was sending. I can assure you I didn’t need any more pens. In fact I will follow my own advice here and declutter yet more from my house. Perhaps I will take them to the post office. If you set aside a place in your house to store such items you won’t fall into the trap of buying more that you don’t need.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

While we have plenty of old pros here at 365 Less Things, we have plenty of drop-by readers and lurkers, some of whom are probably in denial about their need to declutter. So here’s my checklist, roughly arranged from the most obvious to the most subtle clues that you should use if you think that maybe you don’t really need to declutter.

• You rent a storage unit.
• Your garage, basement, or attic looks like a storage unit.
• You have a whole room devoted to storage.
• You have a door in your home that you cannot open.
• You have a door in your home that you cannot open safely or without throwing your body in front of the opening as you pull on the door.
• You wish you had a room that you could devote to storage.
• Or worse, you are considering moving or adding on to your home, just for storage.
• You sometimes wish that your house would just burn down so you wouldn’t have to deal with it any more.
• Your friends offer to come over and help you get organized.
• You are surrounded by possessions that you do not like or enjoy.
• You are surrounded by possessions that were given to you by someone who is dead, and you do not like and enjoy them.
• You believe that more storage is the solution to your problems.
• You do not have friends or family over.
• When friends and family do come over, you need at least a week’s notice, and it’s a stressful week.
• You cannot use the furniture as it is intended to be used because it is used as storage.
• You have make-shift storage (i.e. overflowing baskets, laundry baskets, a bunch of stuff bundled up into a table cloth and hidden in the garage, etc.)
• You got remarried, moved in with parents, etc., and now you have two (at least!) of everything.
• Anyone has ever said the words “fire hazard” while looking around you home.
• Anyone has ever said the words “estate sale” while looking around your home.
• Your closets are so full that you have to use your body as a wedge to get something in or out.
• You shop and hide the evidence.
• You shop for non-consumables more than once a month.
• Shopping is your favorite hobby – or one of them.
• You buy things because they are a bargain.
• You buy things because you “might” need it and aren’t sure if you already own one.
• You buy duplicates because you don’t know what you have or where it is.
• You buy for a current hobby at a rate that outpaces your ability to do that hobby.  (You buy dozens of books at a time, dozens of yarns skeins , dozens of patterns, hundreds of Legos, etc.)
• You don’t overbuy on yourself, but on your children or grandchildren…well that’s another matter.
• Your living room looks like a preschool classroom.
• Your children don’t play with half their toys. They don’t even know what half their toys are!
• You pulled a bunch of stuff out of a closet to organize it, and it’s been sitting outside the closet for more than two weeks, with no progress being made.
• The phrases “I might need it some day” “I’ve never used/opened that” “But I spent so much money on it” and “I intend to do XX project with that some day” have come of out your mouth sometime in the past 6 months.
• You don’t know what’s in the boxes in your attic, basement, garage, storage unit, etc.
• If the IRS (or your country’s taxing agency) called you for an audit, you could not lay your hands on the proper paperwork in less than 5 minutes.
• You pay bills late because you don’t know where they are.
• Your pantry looks like it is the store.
• You regularly throw foods away because they’re expired, you bought too much, or you do not like what you purchased.
• You have supplies for crafts or hobbies that you no longer do/enjoy.
• You cannot find everything in your house in less than 5 minutes.
• You have ever uttered the phrase “It’s in one of five places.”
• You own duplicates of useful items, but you really only need one.
• In the past year, you have not given away, sold, or donated any goods to charity.
• You have to step around anything on your floors, except furniture.
• You love to save little goodies from your travels, but you never look back on them.
• You take dozens of pictures at every conceivable event.
• You never delete an email.
• You save articles on decluttering and organization, but that’s as far as it goes.
• You have a sofa or bed side table that’s actually a stack of reading material.
• You have clothes in more than two sizes.
• You think that if you just had a $1000 gift card to The Container Store, everything would be all right.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter under the bed ~ One young reader (not mentioning any names) was decluttering under her bed last week due to Moni’s blog post. I don’t need to tell you how much easier it is to keep this area dust and lint free when there is nothing to clean around or move.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is something that was being stored in a drawer under the end of my bed until they were sold on ebay recently.

Bib and Brace Ski Pants

Something to be grateful for today

I have been making progress on our household inventory. It has been a good opportunity to do some declutter fine tuning in the kitchen. It should be plain sailing after the kitchen is out of the way because that is where most of the small individual items are.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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