Have you ever heard the expression ~ Can’t see the forest for the trees. Here is an explanation of this expression according to About.com…

Definition: overly concerned with detail; not understanding the whole situation

Explanation: Used when expressing that a person is focusing too much on specific problems and is missing the point.

When it comes to clutter though this expression manifests in reverse. That is, people can’t see the trees for the forest. Or explained simply in clutter terms ~ Can’t distinguish the individual items of clutter from the sheer bulk of their possessions. Or more to the point they are paralysed by the magnitude of the task of decluttering and can’t see that all they have to do is pick out one item here and one item there until they can begin to see the progress they are making.

This paralysis if mostly caused by one, more or all of the following restraints…

Emotional Attachment ~ When things have been acquired over a lifetime, either personally or given by a loved one, emotional attachments are often forged. Once all these items have amassed it is easy to think we are attached equally to it all of them and not realise that among the bulk (the forest) there are things (individual trees) that are of less importance to us than others. We therefore can’t bring ourselves to “rape” the forest when in fact all we are doing to thinning out the excess trees to allow the light to illuminate the remaining ones so they can thrive and the forest is better and healthier for it. Or in terms of possessions ~ remove the less loved stuff to allow you to see and enjoy the items you really love and have a tidier, cleaner, happier and therefore healthier environment to live in.

Worth ~ We often squander our money accumulating items that we ultimately don’t get the true value out of. As a result we tend to find them difficult to declutter without feeling we need to redeem some of that wasted cash. This is all very well and good if you get on and do something about it. But more often than not this is a real stumbling blocks for people when it comes to decluttering. They look at the sheer bulk of the task of selling these items and it adds a “too hard” factor to the equation and avoidance is the result. We also kid ourselves that all the items  in our possession are of value because we might need them someday or they might increase in value given more time.

The question to ask yourself is what is the value of your peace of mind. How much are you willing to pay for the serenity of having the task behind you and just being rid of the stuff. Wouldn’t it be better to donate it all or sell it off cheaply and quickly and get on with your life.

If you are willing to make the effort once again ignore the forest (bulk of the stuff) and start weeding out the scrawny trees (the items of less value). Donate them to charity and sell the rest. Or If you are able why not have a yard/garage sale where you can sell off the lesser stuff cheaply and only accept good offers for the better stuff. Should the better stuff not sell find another avenue for selling where you will redeem a better price. Auctions, ebay, CraigsList, advertise in the newspaper etc. This is a compromise that will earn you some extra cash but actually make progress on reducing the clutter.

Laziness ~ So often I hear the excuse of ~ “I really need to declutter but I am just too busy.” ~ only to later discover that the person proclaiming this is an avid reader, movie or television watcher, crafter or the like that spends hours consumed by their pastime and not so much their duties. This is all very well and good, everybody needs something to unwind by or enjoy doing but leisure time is just that leisure time should not be an all consuming monopoliser of your time or an avoidance tactic.

Once again the thought of all that decluttering (the forest) is unappealing so we retreat into our other pastimes whether deliberately or unconsciously. We delude ourselves that we are spending our time productively when really we are just avoiding the task and fooling ourselves that we are being productive.  Just ten minutes a day to put aside one item (the trees) is all it takes to get the job under way. That isn’t a lot of time to subtract from the other activities you enjoy doing. Use those activities as a reward once the task is done rather than a retreat.

So the moral of this story is to not focus on the entirety of the task at hand. Just find that one thing a day starting with the easy things first and before you know it you will able to appreciate the joys of living with less.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a lazy clutter item ~ Something you have no real attachment to, you just haven’t got around to getting rid of it.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is one of the things in my home whose removal was delayed due to wanting to redeem some of the money wasted on it. The time span between deciding to declutter it and actually selling it on ebay really didn’t bother me. I am simply satisfied that I did redeem some of my lost cash. The difference between this situation and the one I described above is that once I decided it was to go I put it aside to sell. The decision was made and the process begun and during the time between owning and selling it I am still busy decluttering other things.

Sizzix Cutting Die Organiser

Eco tip for the day

Hang your clothes to dry when possible rather than wasting power using a tumble dryer. A clothes line isn’t required, I mostly hang my wet washing on an airer either inside or out depending on the weather.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

In honor of my cousin Jenny’s wedding last Friday evening, I have pulled a post from the archives. I wrote this post after polling my friends about what they had done with their dresses.

What did you do with your dress? The unanimous answer – I still have it or once, my parent has it.

I have mine, which I still think is beautiful 15 years later. It’s hermetically sealed in a gigantic box and is in the top of one of the closets. This particular shelf is rather hard to reach, so the only things that would ever be placed on it are long-term storage items. I have enough storage room in the house, so it stays. Ironically, I do not enjoy looking at it. There is a big oval on the top of the box, and the dress is laid out beautifully, but something about it reminds me of looking into a coffin, so it kind of creeps me out. Weird, I know. However, since I told my daughters I was going to write this post, they’ve been clamoring to see my dress, so I am vowing here, before all of you, that I will pull it out and actually look at it soon.

While we like to think that our dress will be worn by a relative, most likely only a piece of it, such as the veil will make a second trip down the aisle. Accepting this notion, some women have cut up their dresses and given them new life as christening gowns or flower girl dresses. One woman I found on the Internet lets her children play dress up with it. I wouldn’t even let my children play dress up with the cocktail dress that I wore to my first wedding, so I know there’s no chance of them prancing around in the traditional gown I wore when I married their father.

In addition to keeping the dress, there are a couple of other possibilities for it. The first, of course, is to sell it. However, this needs to be done in the first couple of years, because no matter how classic we believe our dress is, styles change, and it likely won’t be sellable after 4 or 5 years.

The other option is to donate it. That I was able to discover, there is only one nation-wide charity in the U.S. that takes wedding dresses,  Brides Against Breast Cancer (www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org), but even they won’t take gowns older than 2009.

But back to keeping the dress. I thought my girlfriends had interesting things to say about their gowns and their choices:

One of my friends despises her dress, but she still won’t part with it. Here’s what she wrote: Anyway, I have dragged the dress across the country four times. But I never throw it out because it’s a piece of history, if you will: a tangible remnant of my past that the kids can explore or chuck. So far my daughter agrees with me that the dress is pretty putrid. But she always says that she’d like to use parts of it for her gown. So who knows? Maybe butt bows will come back in style — and if they do, I’m ready!

Initially, this friend’s dress was saved by her mother, who later mailed it to her. I think it speaks to the feeling of intrinsic importance that we place on our gowns: By “mailed” I’m being literal: She just slapped some stamps on the hermetically sealed boxes –no wrapping, no insurance, no anything!– and sent ‘em US Mail. When they arrived, our mail carrier –who was a woman– knocked on our door and proceeded to berate me for 15-minutes about the “irresponsibility of sending something as precious as a wedding gown” in such a manner.

Another friend said: My husband wanted to know why I was keeping it recently and I didn’t have a very good answer. It seemed like bad luck to get rid of it or something.

This friend’s husband is with the U.S. State Department, and they move around the world every two years. While she did not keep her dress, her father cannot part with it, and it lives at his house. (And, as you will read, she’s a natural declutterer): So interesting that everyone who answered has kept their wedding dresses! I’m surprised. Maybe because I move so often, I just can’t keep stuff. I cried the day we had to sell my grand piano, and I think that was the day I learned not to develop an emotional connection to “things.” I haven’t looked back since, and now I am queen of “get rid of.” The only things I would hate to lose are my scrapbooks. In contrast, everything my parents purchased was to last a lifetime (actually several generations’ lifetimes). I think it may be something about that  generation, or perhaps growing up in the Depression. I now can’t imagine living that way, with all that stuff piling up!

In the end, though, I think this friend said it best: Every so often I think I should sell it just to make space but you know, I’ve got SO MANY worthless things that could be gotten rid of, I am keeping the dress.

Well said! – Declutter what is not precious, so you have room to save what is.

Today’s Mini Mission

Refurbish something. Maybe something has become clutter because it needs a lick of paint to bring it back to life.  Even if you end up not using it after all at least if it will now be in better condition for whoever finds it at the thrift store or if you decide to sell it.

Today’s Declutter Item

While taking yet another sweep through his keepsake box my husband found yet more foreign coins that we have no use for or sentimental attachment to. I took them to the bank where they are donated to Unicef.

Foreign Coins

Eco Tip For The Day

Where possible replace disposable items with reusable one ~ coffee cups, batteries, food storage, coffee filters…

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Last month the family and I went to a monthly event, The City-Wide Garage Sale. Ever since one of my staff members bought a really cool old stove at the sale, I’d been curious. (And since that was literally more than 15 years ago, it seemed like it was about time.)

Wow! Was that eye opening! The garage sale is really an indoor flea market, and you could buy just about anything there – the smaller it was, the more likely they were to have it. The sellers are pickers and traders who endlessly loop throughout the country attending these events. Nothing’s terribly expensive; I don’t know how they actually make money doing this. One friend even suggested that it was just a socially acceptable form of hoarding: The vendors just keep buying and accumulating, selling and accumulating.

Here are some photos I took that day

I was struck by the fact that the vendors didn’t have one of something; they had 100. All alike. One woman had a huge display case of Bakelite bangle bracelets – a whole row of red, a whole row of yellow, a whole row of green, etc. Another man had several hundred little skulls. A pair of sellers must have had four hundred silver native American-style bracelets with a chunk of turquoise in them. The volume was just eye popping. The photos above are all things that people might save for sentimental reasons or to sell in the future. There were dozens of brass letters, hundreds of watches and cufflinks, thousands of baseball cards complete with bubble gum (just $1.50 to $3.50 per pack).

What I took away from this day was this message: Your stuff is a lot less precious and a lot less rare than you think it is. There is virtually nothing that can’t be replaced a dozen times over. Especially if it’s not of a deeply sentimental nature, you don’t need it. And if you do need it again later, it’s out there. In triplicate…or more.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that you are keeping “just in case” you eventually find a use for it.

Today’s Declutter Item

This declutter item is related to another I got rid of a little while back. Remember the candle with the pink design on it, it rested on these stones in a glass bowl. I still have the glass bowl but the rocks can go. I barely walked into the thrift store with them when one of the other volunteers said “I’ll have those!”. So as usual one man’s clutter is another man’s clutter, I mean treasure.

Aquarium Stones

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

As I’ve told you (probably countless times), we remodeled our house, and the last of the workmen pulled away two years ago in July. There were a lot of smaller jobs and some very large painting jobs that needed to be completed, but the house itself was done. Two years have passed, and I still have a half dozen paintings, including a couple of pieces of expensively framed limited edition pieces, that have not been hung. About every three months, I get into the closet where they’re stored and vow that today is the day that I’ll finish figuring it out. And every time I end up feeling anxious, itchy, uncertain, overwhelmed, unsure, and I shove it all back in the closet and gratefully slam the door behind me.

What’s behind this great difficulty? It’s hard to say exactly, but I attribute it to several causes:

• Sentimentality, part 1 – I’ve always hung this piece, so I should hang it again.
• Sentimentality, part 2 - Some of it is the children’s art that’s framed and won’t their feelings be hurt if I don’t hang it again (or worse, get rid of it)?
• Gift – A couple of pieces were gifts. (Do not give gifts of art, unless you’re the artist. Even then, it’s questionable.) Will the gift-givers, my in-laws, or my husband be offended or hurt if one of them disappears?
• Expense – Once the cost of framing is included, I probably have a thousand dollars worth of art that’s unhung. I must get my money’s worth by hanging it again.
• Uncertainty about what else to do with it – There some good stuff here and some expensive stuff. How should I sell it / give it away / donate it? I paid good money for it and want someone else to appreciate it.
• Maybe I can make it work – A different frame? A different mat? Maybe I can make it work.
• Certainty that I still like the piece – Self-explanatory, I guess.

But here are my counter-arguments:

• Sentimentality, part 1 – Just because I’ve done it before doesn’t mean I have to do it again.
• Sentimentality, part 2 – One child is sentimental; the other one is not at all. Offer it to her for her room, or take it out of the frame, recycle the frame, and keep the art with her other pieces.
• Gift – Often a tricky area. I no longer think my in-laws would notice. Frankly, my husband probably wouldn’t either because he probably doesn’t really notice what’s on the walls. I could ask him. Or not. Something to ponder further.
• Expense – We’ve all had this hang up. We paid a lot of money, and even though we no longer value the item, we hate to waste our money and perversely feel that someone else should value something as much as we no longer do. (That thought is so twisted that it’s hard to write it in a sentence that makes sense.) Personalized art is a lot like a 10 year old computer. It may still be very nice, but it doesn’t have the same value on the open market.
• Uncertainty about what else to do with it – I know all the local resources, but if I feel stuck, I can seek help from others.
• Maybe I can make it work – This is like valuing a broken vacuum cleaner that you just know will be fantastic – and such a bargain – once you fix it up, but you never have. But it’s also like that saying, “Throwing good money after bad.” If I’ve lost my attachment to the art, a costly new frame probably isn’t going to solve the problem.
• Certainty that I still like the piece – Clearly this is self-deception. If I really liked the piece, it would be up on the wall. After all, I have a lot of hanging art. My walls are not bare, and these pieces repeatedly have not made the cut.

So what did I do? I contacted a woman I know who works for a charity that has an annual garage sale – by far the biggest and best garage sale held in the city. There was a tickle in the back of my mind, which she confirmed, that they have a “designer” section, and they’re grateful to know the original purchase price of more unique items. The three most expensive pieces went with her, my mother was interested in two (she just remodeled her house so they may or may not work, but she put them in her mix to try), and three of the more generic (also known as “having wide appeal”) pieces were listed on Craigslist, which come to think about it, is where they came from to begin with. Anything that doesn’t sell on Craigslist will also go to the garage sale charity. Eight pieces finally dealt with. I cannot tell you how good that feels!

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a guilt item ~ Don’t feel obliged to keep something just because you shouldn’t have wasted the money on it in the first place. Try to sell it to recoup some money or just find a way to pass it on. Forgive yourself and move on.

Today’s Declutter Item

I don’t have a guilt item to declutter today in fact I don’t think I have any guilt items left. I hope so anyway. I have however finally decluttered all the cookbooks I am willing to let go of. The only ones left are my self made one with all my mum’s old recipes and the favourites I have discovered over the years and a Jamie Oliver one that has several favourites in it. My daughter bought it for my birthday one year so if I decide to decluttering it I will offer it back to her.

More Cookbooks

Something to be grateful for today

 The third fine day in a row, just when I really needed to get the washing done. Yay!

“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

I received the following email from Jeff a week or so ago which is really what inspired me to focus on obligation clutter again this week. It is amazing the desperation we sometimes feel when faced with the dilemma of “I don’t want this thing but it’s family history so I really can’t declutter it. What am I to do?” Anyway read Jeff’s comment, where you will hear that desperation, and we will go from there.

I really appreciate your wonderful posts. They, as well as other sites and books, have spurred me on to GET RID OF STUFF! I (we) have been successful in a lot of areas, but the one that gives me the most problems is inherited stuff. I’m an only child, and both my parents are gone now. I have in my garage a trunkful (and other containers) of sentimental and historical stuff that I seem paralyzed to dispose of. Diaries, WWI, WWII memorabilia*, PICTURES!!!! (even one of Lindbergh standing on the wing of his plane), and family stuff for over one hundred years. Nobody in my family ever threw anything away! I have no other extended family remotely interested in the items, and my own children are thoroughly modern and don’t care (yet.) I find myself almost wishing for a tornado (I’m in Oklahoma) to come and take away the stuff so I don’t have to worry about it anymore! To top it off, my wife will have the same situation when her parents pass on.
Jeff

Being an only child makes this situation both easier and more difficult for Jeff at the same time. At least he knows the items are his alone and it is his decision as to what to do with them. But if he had a sibling who cared to have the items it would be so much easier to pass them on. Then there is the complication of whether Jeff’s children will change their minds in the future and want the stuff themselves. As I see it there are many things Jeff should consider…

1. If his children are old enough to make rational decisions about the items ~ that is not to young to realise the significance of what they are being offered ~ then he is free to let them go. I would suggest that anyone over the age of 25 has enough of their own individual personality to make this decision. It doesn’t guarantee that they still won’t change their mind but they will however be old enough to remember they were given the choice.
2. If the items are from beyond Jeffs parents generation ~ that is his grandparnents, great grandparents… ~ then it is fair, and maybe even a legal requirement, to offer them to any existing family members ~ uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews… ~ before making the decision to hand them on any other way. If someone else in the family wants to carry on the tradition of handing these items down then that is a good thing. Should Jeff choose this option perhaps he could give them with the proviso that they come back to his children should they wish it in the future.
3. Should there be no other family members to take the items then another method of keeping possession of them while having them enjoyed by others is to loan them to a local preservation society or museum. By loaning items they remain your property to be retrieved when desired. In Jeffs case military museums would be a good choice to loan his WW1 and WW2 items to.
4. If Jeff is happy to hand them on permanently he could outright donate them to the local preservation society or museum of his choice.
5. Should all these other options be exhausted then Jeff might just choose to sell the items.

*I will say that I personally think that military medals  should remain within the family if possible. For personal reasons I do have a rather bias opinion on this though.

Multi generational family heirlooms deserve special consideration when decluttering. I am not talking about a few fancy tea cups your mother once owned that have no real story attached except that they are pretty, made by Royal Dalton and might be worth a few bucks but real family history~ items of great personal value and possible even great monetary value. While thinking about this post I began doing a little research and found a web post that I though covered the subject of handing on heirlooms quite well and I implore you to read if as just a start to researching this subject. Here is the link

TLC .howstuffworks.com ~ 5 Things to do before passing down heirlooms 

From a financial point of view I would always investigate the monetary value of any heirloom item before making the decision to sell or donate. The more information you are armed with the better decision you stand to make. How many stories have your heard where someone has picked up a half million dollar item for $50 at a garage sales. I know I have.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some grown children clutter ~ This is something long ago left behind by your grown child.  Your home is not a storage unit, ask them to collect it and let them know you are going to get rid of it otherwise. With a little diplomacy this is possible without alienating them.

Today’s Declutter Item

It would be a lie to say I have no grown children clutter to get rid of because I have three boxes of it in the garage and that is only the start. One of the children is still at home while the other isn’t settled enough to expect her to collect her stuff yet. So I have no examples to declutter today but I do however have these two little bits to clutter from my own teen years. One is an elastic ankle support from my days of several sprains playing softball while the other is a leather bat grip. I am at a loss to explain how these things have stayed in my possession for so long especially since they were in our first aid kit that has been decluttered several times already. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Sport Clutter

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Aborting my continually interrupted attempts to get the house work done and going instead to a friends place for coffee and cake. Gotta love resorting to plan B.

“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

One of the things I love about decluttering slowly but surely is that I am not forced to make rash decision as to what should and shouldn’t be decluttered. With my goal of one item a day there is only one decision to be made each day. Some decision are made in advance and eventually the day comes where I think “That will be my declutter item on the day.” Some decisions are spur of the moment when I stumble across an item that I had missed before but am in no doubt that it can go. While other things get passed over time and time again and left until I am ready to make the final decision on. There are also things I know I want to declutter but am not ready to deal with the hassle right now and that is OK too because I am still running to schedule. One day their time will come when I have the patience and inclination to focus my full attention on them to complete the task efficiently.

There are so many things that weren’t even on may radar at the start of my declutter journey but now are easy to let go off. This is because as I continue down this path my attachment to stuff in general becomes weaker and weaker. I am more enthusiastic to unburden myself of the clutter than I am to keep it. Things had better be loved, useful and not in excessive amounts or they are out of here.

So if you have something you aren’t sure about pass it by for now and move on to something else. Being conflicted over something when there are easier fish to fry is a waste of metal energy. Later on you might look back at that item again and think, I really want this gone more than I want it here so out it can go. It is actually a good feeling when you come to these conclusions because not only are you letting go of more stuff but you have clearly graduated to a new level of detachment to material things. And that is something to be celebrated.

Today’s Mini Mission

Remove something from your yard that a neighbour might be able to see and think looks out of place or unsightly. Ask the neighbour if you aren’t sure and are game.

Today’s Declutter Item

This jewellery box was no rash decluttering decision. I had been contemplating emptying it and decluttering it for a long time. There was no hurry as there were plenty of other items to declutter in the meantime. Finally the task is done and the box is off to the thrift store. I am still finding avenues to sell some of the contents so they will filter through as declutter items in the near future.

Jewellery Box

“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

A guest post by Julia St. Charles

My mother’s home is full of “too good to use” items and random objects from babyhood and toddlerhood.

I’d love to write an open letter to young parents along the lines of:

Dear Young Parents:

If you are going to save mementos from your children’s early years, please do not save everything.  Except for handmade or heirloom items, like the baby quilt Grandma made, or the hand-knit layette from Aunt Barbara, give outgrown clothing to Goodwill — ordinary clothing will be both too physically aged and too far out of style for your imagined future grandchildren to use.  When you do pack away the hand-knit layette and handmade quilt, get storage advice from a professional so they are not opened 25 years later for the first grandchild, only to find they have been destroyed by moths.

Your children will let you know which favorite items they want to hang onto: that special Dr. Seuss book, that favorite Teddy bear.  You won’t have to ask. Please do not save each and every toy, birthday gift or other belonging “in case they want to take a walk down memory lane one day.”  Forty years from now your daughter will not want that card from her third birthday, whether the giver can be identified or not.  Keep only a few “milestone” birthday and Christmas cards if you wish, and try to limit those to people who are deceased, as that may be all you have left from them.

Another thing your child will not want is old schoolwork assignments.  Really, they won’t want those fifth grade math tests and report cards, no mater how many A’s they got.

Keep photos and very few “things.”  99% photos.  Your middle aged daughter will not want to inherit an attic jam packed with broken Barbies, musty toddler clothes and tattered holiday cards “for a special three-year-old!”   Think ahead: “will I be leaving an inheritance or a burden?”

Love,

Anykid

Today’s Mini Mission

Take a quick look in the bathroom and find something to declutter. It’s that simple. Don’t fuss don’t hesitate just find that one thing and get it our of there.

Today’s Declutter Item

Talking of children’s keepsakes… this is the last of my son’s Snoopy Collection. I gave it to a friend some time ago but misplaced the photo. So this will absolutely be the last photo of Snoopy stuff. Liam I am glad to say is very good at letting go of stuff.

The absolute last of my son's Snoopy Collection

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Last week, I talked about shopping at the Goodwill, and we all felt a bit of dread: what happens to our stuff when we let it go?  I know the definitive answer to this question: It’s not yours any more.

I came to this perhaps obvious realization last week. For years, I have had a queen size air mattress with a leak that I have never found. I’ve tried to find it while using it (and slowly, slowly getting closer to the ground), and I tried to find it earlier this year when I blew it up just for the purpose of locating the leak. I was not successful. So last week I decided enough was enough, and I offered it away for free. A friendly fellow named Michael claimed it. He said he was going camping in two weekends, and he would find the leak if he could, and toss it away if he couldn’t. Toss it away!?! Yes, dear readers, I almost snatched the thing back.

Pretty idiotic, huh? I hadn’t found the leak, I hadn’t fixed it, and yet I’m holding him to a standard that I, myself, did not achieve. Perhaps I think it’s better if it just sits around my house for a few more years, not being fixed. How ridiculous, yet how true. Part of the reason I hadn’t thrown it out is that it’s a giant piece of plastic (plastic = bad!), and he seemed so relaxed about tossing it, if need be.  But, again, how ridiculous of me to judge.

That’s when it occurred to me: Once you let something go, it’s not yours any more.

I’m sure at times when Colleen is working at the thrift store, she see people whom she recognizes as regular shoppers and bargain hunters, and she may be secretly tempted to empty their carts when their backs are turned. But she, and others, have donated those goods. They don’t belong to their original owner any more. Yes, I think it’s important to try and find the best home for your cast off goods: a friend, neighbor, willing Ebay purchaser, etc., but once those things leave your possession, they’re gone. You can’t force the person who accepts your goods to use them to their highest and best use, especially since you, yourself, were not doing this.

Sometimes we even tell ourselves that we really value something that we’re getting rid of, so we want the next person to demonstrate to us that they’re going to value it just like we did. Or maybe we regret a purchase and know that we wasted our money, so we hope that the next person will use it so much or get so much pleasure out of the item that it will somehow make up for our bad purchase. Well, let’s face the facts, we gave it away or sold it because we no longer valued it or it wasn’t right for us, so don’t expect someone else to fix that mistake for you.

You bought it; you shouldn’t have. You’ve outgrown it; that happens. Your interests have changed; that’s natural. You inherited it; you don’t love it. Do your best to find an appropriate home and then let it go. Because you can’t control something that doesn’t belong to you any more.

Today’s Declutter Item

This basketball souvenir makes a nice change from baseball souvenir clutter but clutter it is none-the-less. I donated it to the thrift store and it sold before my shift was done that day.

Basketball Souvenir Clutter

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter dishes that you have too many of. 

Something I am grateful for today

Making the decision to get rid of something I have been considering for a while.

“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

The mini mission for today is plant related clutter. This could be potted plants that have seen better days, potting supplies and tools, gardening equipment, or even wild overgrown garden plants. But the thought behind the inclusion of this post was people receiving potted plants as gifts and not being able to part with them even when they have become straggly and unattractive as potted plants often do over time. This can happen if they are kept in the wrong environment with poor lighting or harsh conditions like in an air-conditioned office.

Let me create a scenario for you. Mary works in an office with no windows and thinks it needs a little sprucing up with a plant or two to add a little Mother Nature to the atmosphere. She generously gifts the office some lovely potted plants. Neither Mary nor her colleges have green thumbs but do remember to water the plants so they stay alive at least. The lighting is poor and the plants grow stringy trying to reach the light as plants do and they are never fertilised so they don’t thrive. Mary eventually moves on to a new position in another firm near by but drops in often to visit her old work friends. These friends realise that the plants are looking pretty sad and frankly detract form the otherwise cheery atmosphere of the office but are now reluctant to replace them because they were a gift to the office from Mary who drops in on a regular basis and would notice them gone. So it would be wrong to get rid of them right?

No! Mary probably thinks they look dreary too and is probably wondering why they are still there. My advice would be to give them a holiday from the office, take them home and see if a little tender loving care will revive their previous healthy condition. If that doesn’t work just replace them with similar plants using the old planter pots.

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I gave my mother a plant for Mothers Day once, it was a golden cypress bush. I must have been about ten at the time. She planted it in the from yard at our house. My father later decided to put a driveway in down the side where the cypress was growing. Instead of just cutting it down he moved it to a new position. I don’t know if he did this under mum’s insistence because I had given it to her, until now I have never given it a thought. Anyway the cyress thrived in its new position and soon grew to about ten feet high. A couple of years later they sold the house and moved to another and the tree was left behind. So I bought my mum a new golden cyress for her next mothers day gift. She seemed to like the first one so why not. About three years later we moved from that house too but we never continued the tradition of the golden cypress plant and it didn’t matter to either off us. It never did matter, the original gift was just another gift the second one just seemed appropriate and by the third house I probably came up with better gift ideas or had more money to spend.

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My daughter bought me an indoor plant for mothers day just after we moved into the house in which we currently reside. It had been in the same position for four years until this past Christmas. I used the planter I bought for it to hold the Christmas tree (twigs) and put the plant outside in a shady part of the garden for a little holiday. Alas its leaves got burnt by the sun and I had to trim it back so much that it no longer was big enough for the planter so I bought a new plant and left the other in another spot in the garden to see if it would recuperate. If my daughter noticed it gone when she visited last week she certainly didn’t mention it. I just went out to check and the plant has actually sprouted a new shoot, something it has never done indoors. Had it died so be it. I am sure my kids haven’t kept every gift I have given them either.

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One last story. A friend gave me a blueberry bush as a thank you gift because she knows I don’t like clutter. I liked this gift simply because I like blueberries and hoped it would grow into a thriving bush and yeild a bountiful crop. I realise this could take a while and wasn’t expecting miracles in the first year. It took me a while to plant the bush but since then, probably thanks to the abundant rain this year, it has indeed thrived. Keep in mind it was only a tiny bush and now it is three times the size. My tiny bush yielded me only three delicious blueberries last year but I am hoping for a bigger crop next spring. If next year the rain is not so abundant and my blueberry bush dies from neglect because I am a lazy gardener it will be not big deal. If this was the case and my friend asked what became of it I would tell her it didn’t survive my brown thumb. I have a natural culling process in my garden, that is if it survives my neglect it must be a good hardy plant meant for the local conditions and belongs in my garden. She would understand, not that I think she would even ask or that it is going to die because I have actually taken particular care of this plant.

So the moral of these stories is a plant is just a plant. Like humans they live and die and sometimes it takes more expertise than you have to take care of them properly. So do your best and if it doesn’t work out don’t loose any sleep over it. And if you work in an office with sorry looking plants offer to take them home and give them some tender loving care and if that fails just replace them and either admit to your failing or pretend the replacements are the old plants that have thrived from your green thumb.

Today’s Declutter Item

What’s worse than real plant clutter? That’s right, fake plant clutter. This pathetic example  was “decorating” the top of my kitchen cupboards until I was up there cleaning them off a couple of weeks ago. It was so caked in kitchen grime and I didn’t like it anyway so I threw the plant in the bin and donated the pot and stand to the thrift store.

Fake Plant Clutter

Something I Am Grateful For Today

A break in the weather so I could walk to the post office to mail some ebay sales.

“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

Cindy

Do you own anything that’s “too good to use”? I bet you do. I started this post by asking my mother. The first thing she said was, “Yes, and do you know what a mistake that was?” What I think is really interesting about this story is that it took my Mom less than a second to think of an answer and that the item in question was given to her as a wedding gift 49 years ago. You’ll be surprised what it was. Here’s what she said:

“Yes, and you know what a mistake that was? When we were first married, we were given a twin blanket that was ‘too good to use.’ We were sharing a twin bed then and could have used it from day one, but we didn’t. Then we got a queen bed, and since the blanket was a twin, it didn’t fit and was still ‘too good to use.’ I think about 10 years ago, it was the junk blanket that Ken (my father) used in the back of the truck.”

Wow! From “too good to use” to junky blanket in the back of a truck. What a waste of a perfectly “too good” blanket.

One of us grandkids gave my grandmother a sort of wine goblet with a half dozen rose-shaped soaps in it. The whole thing was wrapped in plastic. Those rose-shaped soaps never got used, and when my Grandmother died, the soaps were still sitting there, wrapped in now-dusty plastic. Why? I know she wanted to enjoy looking at them, but it would have made more sense to enjoy looking at them for a year and then enjoy using them for another year. Why were rose-shaped soaps ‘too good to use’?

Perhaps you have a beautiful necklace that you think is ‘too good to use’ except on very special occasions. If you really love it, and if it’s not so special that the guards from the insurance company are following you around when it’s on your neck, then why not wear it to work or church? Are you really going to enjoy it more if you only wear it once a year versus once a month? Or even everyday? I have a beautiful and expensive necklace, and it’s rare that I don’t wear it. It amazes me that after five years of almost daily wearing, I still get regular compliments on it.

When you have something that you treasure and you don’t use it, you’re not honoring that item, nor are you honoring yourself. It’s not too good to be used; that’s why it was made, and you certainly deserve to use something “too good.” What do you own that’s creating clutter by being “too good to use”?

Today’s Declutter Item

Still on a roll when it comes to decluttering with my daughter. Today we have some 3rd birthday cards who we can’t identify the giver of (gone to recycling), an old jazz ballet costume (thrift shop), 2 baseball sun visors (surprised she was willing to part with the Yankees one),  these will go to a baseball fan helper at the thrift shop, her baby music toy which has perished and broken from old age and one crazy looking rag doll she made some time ago (both binned).

More of my Daughter's Stuff

Something I Am Grateful For Today

 Having a nice dinner with a friend and to make it even better my daughter cooked for us. A great little girls night in. Hubby is out of town and Liam was out with friends.

“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