My daughter is home for a ten day visit and according to plan I have her decluttering the stuff she left behind when she went off to university four years ago.  She is being very cooperative and I am grateful for that. Knowing me as she does she was fully expecting to have to comply with some decluttering tasks before she even arrived.

I haven’t bombarded her with stuff, just every now and again I will pull out some things and hold up for her to adjudicate on. A quick “keep” or “no” is all it takes. She has done well so far eliminating quite a few items, making it possible for what is left of be contained within the boxes I have set aside for her. Before she arrived the stuff was overflowing into other corners of my house. Hopefully before she leaves we might be able eliminate a box or two.

Each time she visits she eliminates more stuff. Quite often stuff that she chose to keep the last time she was here. One thing I have noticed during this exercise is that you can tell she is a traveller. Her only concern about the things she had to choose from was where they came from. For example the Elvis number plate she didn’t care about unless we got it when we were visited Memphis. The Mark McGwire baseball had the same effect, “Where did we get that?” was her only concern. When I told her a garage sale she was happy to let it go. So all I need to say when she’s not sure whether she cares so much about somethings is that we bought it at a garage sale. 😆 She forgets how cunning I am.

But seriously there are two things I take out of this. One is that when sentiment is tied to things people find them harder to part with. And two, communication is key when it comes to decluttering. I have found that nagging and insisting will not work when you want cohabiters in your home to declutter. Being silent and just putting up with the status quo will only serve to make you feel bitter and dissatisfied. You need to let those around you know what you would like to happen and that it is important to you and then allow them to comply at their own pace.

My daughter is aware of my needs when it comes to decluttering and she complies to whatever point she is prepared to.  There is no pressure forced onto her to give up things she isn’t prepared to part with. I make it as easy as possible for her and that makes it more likely to happen. I know she is not in a position to take all her stuff away right now and she probably wants to reduce it to a reasonable amount before that time does arrive. We are both happy and that is what matters.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is my daughters decluttering effort so far and she had only been here 24 hours. I have to admit she, her brother and I did have a bit of fun playing Crocodile Dentist before we put it in the thrift shop box.

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Having fun with my kids.

“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

Recently my in-laws were in town. They went to their storage unit and returned to my house with a glass pitcher that they thought we might like ~ it had belonged to my mother-in-law’s great grandmother. My husband seemed eager (or at least politely accepting), and I had broken one of our two glass pitchers a while back, so I wasn’t opposed to having it. It was not fancy or heirloom quality, just a pressed glass pitcher with a duck scene molded onto it, something that would be the equivalent of a Wal-Mart purchase today.

I used it a few days later and proudly showed my husband when he got home from work. I thought he’d be pleased that I had readily accepted this new item into my kitchenware. Instead, he barely recognized it, said he didn’t know which grandmother it was from, and said, “Who knows? She may have been ready to throw it out when she died.”

Interesting.

Interesting because while his mother had ascribed sentimental weight to its existence, Dan couldn’t have cared less. I might have cherished that pitcher as a relic from his great-grandmother for all of his life and passed it down to our children as a treasured heirloom. But he didn’t even care!

In my life, I have an old cook book that belonged to my Grandmother. She was a great cook. It is so stuffed full of recipe clippings that the spine is broken, and when she died, it was thought that I should have it because I’m a good cook too. It’s been more than nine years since she passed, and I have barely given it a look. I don’t ever remember Grandma using it. She used a couple of her cookbooks but mostly used a spiral notebook full of hand written recipes frequently. But this book? It seems to have been a storage unit for Recipes Not Made. While it is supposed to be sentimental to me and to the relatives who decided that I should have it, there’s really no evidence that it was sentimental to my Grandmother. After all, as far as any of us can remember, she never even used it. Sure, she kept it, but my Grandmother was a depression-era housewife: she kept everything. That doesn’t mean that it was near and dear to her.

As you’re decluttering, you will inevitably find something where you will think, “Oh, but Aunt Regenia was so fond of this.” Was she? To whom is this item sentimental and is it sentimental to you?

Today’s Declutter Item

These are another example of aspiration clutter that I was planning on doing something with one day. They was actually given to me by someone who didn’t want them. She knew I made jewellery and though I might be able to use them. I graciously accepted. They were one of those “sentimental to someone else” pieces that Cindy spoke of above. They belonged to my friends mother-in-law who she didn’t like. So I figured I was doing her a favour by accepting them so she didn’t feel obliged to keep them. I attempted to sell them on ebay recently without success so now they are off to the thrift store.

Another Vintage Necklace

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful that they are understanding and trusting at the dentist surgery because I realised at the last minute that I had forgotten my purse. I am also grateful that the reason my friend cancelled our pm coffee together wasn’t because of bad news at her daughters doctors appointment. And I will be grateful if the last thing I had planned today actually works out right. Crazy day! But I am grateful for my patience and sense of humour. Oh and I didn’t need any follow up dental treatment. That is at least fours years in a row now. Woo hoo, gotta luv that!

“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

You may love to cook or you may hate it. No matter how you feel about cooking, I bet you have at least 6 cookbooks, and I’m certain that someone reading this blog today has at least sixty cookbooks. They’re fun to look at, fun to collect, fun to page through and dream with. But let’s be realistic: they’re also expensive, easy to ignore, and hard to declutter.

Prior to December 2009, I probably had two dozen cookbooks, and I don’t think I’d ever gotten rid of one that I owned. I just added to the pile; I loved them. When we remodeled our kitchen, I had a special bookshelf made just for them; it took up the majority of the storage space at my kitchen desk. Then my daughter was diagnosed with diabetes, and I knew our diets had to change. There were foods I was probably never going to make again, and I decide to get rid of cookbooks without mercy. I thought I would be heartbroken; I thought I might cry.

Prior to purging them, I decided that I would look through each one and photocopy those recipes that I could not live without. In the end, I had paged through all those books - all those treasures - and I copied fewer than 10 recipes. Ten! What an insight! The books that I loved and cherished were, in truth, almost worthless to me!

After the purge, I still owned a Cooking Light Slow Cooker book (because the recipes are good and because it contains the nutritional information I need), a Better Homes and Garden plaid cookbook (because I thought it would be wise to hang onto a basic book) and my own recipe binder. Later, I realized that I truly missed Horn of the Moon Cookbook, and I “borrowed” it back. (Thanks Lisa!)

Now I had far fewer cookbooks, but still there was a special shelf dedicated to them, taking up precious space at my kitchen (only) desk.  What a waste of space! I was trying to carry on the majority of the family business at a desk with just one shallow drawer, and here was a big gaping hole below. And, of course, it was getting junked up. Although not everyone has the same luxury I did in this situation, my kitchen cabinets were custom made, so I had drawers made. Two beautiful, spacious, useful drawers, which improved my desk situation 100%. I moved a couple of rarely-used oils into the pantry and put the cookbooks in the narrow cabinet between the vent hood and the wall.

Photo on Left: The hole where the cookbooks were stored has now been replaced with two useful drawers, so new that they still need paint. This space was 24 inches deep, 30 inches wide, and 18 inches high (12,960 square inches). Photo on Right: Cindy's cookbook collection can now be stored in a narrow cabinet, 13 inches deep, 9 inches wide, and 15 inches high (1,755 square inches). Now that is a whole lot of reclaimed space.

Next week I’ll discuss how I manage to be a from scratch cook without a storepile of cookbooks, but in the meantime, I want you to consider what you could do with the extra space you’d gain if you purged your cookbooks.

Today’s Declutter Item

I do have one or two cookbooks still to declutter but they need to be processed first. So today I offer this Art School book instead. I have already taken it to the thrift shop and it was already sold by the end of my shift.

One more book gone

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful in advance for the weather holding out until my sheets are dry. I am hoping that my powers of positive thinking will make this a reality.

“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

When I first took on the challenge to declutter an item a day for an entire year I had my doubts whether we would even have enough items to last a year of decluttering. Two years later I am still at it.

Now don’t think for one minute that I am frustated with the idea that I am still decluttering after such a long time, far from it. Back at the start of 2010 there were many items I would not have even considered decluttering that are now long gone form my home. Items that someone in the home was not ready to part with for one reason or another whether that be sentimental or otherwise. The longer we keep at this the more ruthless we become, the more we are willing to part with and the less we own. The desire to own less has far overtaken the desire to acquire stuff.

Some items that seemed so useful at one point have proved to be more space wasters than anything else. Things that we thought were time savers by design turned out not to save enough time to warrant the space they take up. Other items worth selling were sitting idle so they were sold on ebay. Some items especially furniture items were no longer necessary once all the clutter that they contained was gone. Many items, once believed to be personal treasures, never saw the light of day. We soon realised the items weren’t necessary in order for the memories to stay in tact so out they went.

And here we are two years down the track and approximately 630 items less and I still keep finding things to declutter. So if you look at something today and think “I’ll never declutter that” don’t forget to take another look at it in a couple of months because your attitude may have changed towards it as you hone your minimalist tendencies. Pay close attention to everything in your home so you can make informed choices as to whether the things you think you use and can’t live without really are as essential as you first thought. Chances are the less you have the less you find you “need” or want.

Today’s Declutter Item

This coffee table was one of those items that wasn’t even in within the scope of our declutter radar when we first started decluttering. But it became redundant as the number of items requiring storage in our living room diminished. I wasn’t going to list it here because we had actually replaced it with a storage ottoman more in keeping with our needs and the size of the room. Unfortunately the ottoman arrived damaged and or not well made so it was returned for a refund. It really annoys me when I have taken the time to make a well considered purchase and I end up with a product that has added to the supply chain but turns out not being of the same quality as the display item in the store. For now I have no plans to replace the faulty piece of furniture we will just use the small ottoman we already own.

Coffee Table

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I have been slacking over the holiday season and although my home has been tidy its cleanliness has left a lot to be desired. Today I gave a good once over and it feels good to know it is spick-n-span again. 

“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

Back on the 18th Nov Sabine left a comment about how her friend Debbie had helped her with an emotionally difficult declutter job on memorabilia that was cluttering up her garage. I asked her if she would be kind enough to write a blog post to share with us all. She gladly accepted the challenge and the post below is the result of her effort. I am sure you will all enjoy it and feel free to leave comments and questions for Sabine because she would love your feedback.

Let me also say thank you to her friend Debbie for being there for her when the going got tough. Decluttering isn’t always easy but the hard part can be a lot less daunting with a friend there to back you up.

So without further adieu here is Sabine’s story.

The back wall of my garage is lined with shelves, the shelves stacked with plastic tubs. Until recently (pre-365), a lot of other stuff was jammed onto the shelves. And in front of them. All over the floor, really.

And scariest of all were the tubs labelled ‘memorabilia’. I left them for last while I was working through the garage, five in all. These were supposedly things I had kept for the good memories, but just looking at the tubs made me anxious. In the last five years I had never opened them to enjoy the contents, only to stuff more things in.

Part of my dread, I realized, was not knowing exactly what was in there. If I went through them, would there be unpleasant surprises? I had appeared to have kept just about everything that had passed through my life in my garage, why wouldn’t it be the same with memorabilia? Like many people. I’ve got some unhappy things in my past. What if going through the tubs made me think about that stuff? I didn’t want to. 

Nor did I want to keep looking at those tubs. Five 20-gallon tubs. That’s 100 gallons of memories! But tackling the garage bit by bit built up my tolerance, I guess. I had thrown away so much worthless stuff (and half my bras and underwear, by accident- oops!) and it felt SO good.

When all that was left between me and a garage I would be happy to enter, were those five tubs, I worked up the courage to face them. Sort of. I asked a friend to help.

Deb has been decluttering her home at the same time I have (and reading 365). We commiserate, and egg each other on, and she really understands the emotional component of decluttering.

She came over, we had a nice lunch, and lined up the tubs. We started with the one I thought would be easiest: my kids’ old clothes. And it WAS the easiest, both in terms of the memories all being good, and how easy it was to let items go. The surprise was there was quite a bit of stuff where I was thinking, “Why did I ever keep this?” They were easy to toss, and it gave me confidence.

I ended up with three items to keep out of about 40, and about 12 items I photographed. The pictures will go into our album, with a note about the memories they evoke. Two pages, instead of twenty gallons.

Well, it was good I started with the easy one. When I opened the next tub, I actually had to put the lid back on and take some breaths, before opening it for real. It was filled with kids’ school papers and jumble. Just the sight was a mental overload. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Deb was a big help. She kept saying, “It’s okay. One thing at a time.”

I took out a handful and went through it piece by piece. Once I had begun, the stomach tension went away, but each new handful brought a separate flare of anxiety. Once she saw what my criteria for going through it was(I was sorting first), Deb asked if she could help, making sure I knew it was fine with her if I just wanted her to back off. The perfect helper! She did a rough sort for me, and we winnowed the two tubs of kids’ stuff in less than an hour.

At this point Deb started giving me deadlines, ’cause she could see I was bogging down in the sheer volume. “Twenty minutes to get through this tub!” I flipped out a little, but it got me going, and made me remember I wasn’t doing this to save everything, but to choose the best. And at the bottom of the tub, I realized she let me go over the twenty minutes: it just made me focus. Good ploy, Deb!

Then I went through child by child, and chose what to keep. That part was fun. I chose items that were indicative of each child, found some great stuff to frame and enjoy on our walls. We took a break and moved the piles of keepers, recycling, shredding, etc. It made a good mental as well as physical space, and I could see I was making progress.

The fourth tub was a surprise. More than half of it was just junk (legos, bobbypins, flashlights) that had gotten stuffed in there by mistake during one of my panicked clearouts. Super easy to deal with.

Then the biggie. Memories of my childhood, my father who raised me (now dead), my mother (with whom I have a difficult relationship). This is where the tears came. But I looked at everything. I found items to toss (a perfect attendance plaque from my father’s work-what?!?) and items to keep (a letter he wrote to his boss, turning down a prestigious promotion, because he needed to stay in his current job for the sake of his children’s stability). Items to offer my children (my grandmother’s jewelery which had no meaning for me, but they thought was retro-awesome).

I found funny things. Thank you notes for wedding presents I had forgotten to mail (22 years ago!). I tossed the ones to people who were dead, or divorced, and mailed the rest. They all enjoyed receiving them, with my note on the back, explaining.

I asked my sister if she wanted anything, and then…it was done.

My goal had been to get down to two tubs. It was down to one.

All but one item provokes good memories (working on letting go of that last item, but I’m just not ready yet). When I want to revisit memories, I know it will be a good, and easy, experience. I don’t need to let dread stop me.

Deb and I put everything away, and had dessert.

I felt wonderful. Amazed that I had done it. Writing this post three weeks later, I can only remember a few of the things I tossed (old spelling tests for one). I let this junk clog up my life, my spirit, and my garage for years, and it was such trivial stuff I can hardly remember it now. It kept me from enjoying the things worth keeping. What a waste. I don’t feel guilty. I do feel like a valuable lesson was learned.

And the aftermath! After Deb left, I couldn’t stop. I was so charged up, I tackled my photographs. I now have twenty years of negatives on CDs and the rest lined up to do bit by bit.

I am glad I waited until I had done quite a bit of decluttering. I had developed the skills to assess the stuff, and ask myself questions about what was worth keeping. And I don’t know if I would have had the courage to start, without Deb. Guess I’ve also learned which jobs are just too much to tackle alone.

Lesson learned? Yes. This week I came home with a theater program, looked at it, remembered the enjoyment of the performance, then tossed the paper. Yay!

Today’s Declutter Item

In keeping with today’s post theme my declutter item for today is a bunch of old birthday cards I had kept from my 40th birthday. It was a lovely day, my hubby sent me off to the spa for a facial, a manicure and a full body massage while he prepared dinner for our guests. I don’t need these cards to remind me of that. The tattoo however will be there for life.

More of my own memorabilia declutter

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Finally I felt well enough to tackle the housework today. It feels so good to know everything is clean. My son wanted to cook pizza but there was no way I was going to let him mess up my kitchen. He can cook pizza tomorrow, today is for enjoying seeing everything sparkle.

“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

With all the talk last week of leaving endless clutter behind for a loved one to deal with when you die, I was inspired to finally make a start on my keepsake clutter. I have been ignoring this task in preference for getting rid of the more obvious clutter that is taking up more space. To be honest I have also been avoiding the tediousness of the task. So I decided to practice what I preach and focus on dealing with a little at a time rather than dwelling on the entirety of the task.

This sort of clutter takes up a lot less space than it does time to sort through. Therefore I started on the easiest things first so as to maximised the feeling that I was making good progress thus giving me inspiration to go on with the task. My focus so far has mostly been on greeting card clutter from my wedding and engagement. There was also a few nicknacks and little memorabilia items that I chose to declutter as well.

After last weeks cash windfall while going through my son’s cards I thought it wise to look inside each card before putting them aside for recycling. Alas no such luck with the money this week. But I did have a good time seeing who they were all from and reading the occasional funny message. I didn’t even recognise the names in a few of them.

As for the wedding cards, I made a list of all the names in the acceptances and inabilities to accept in order to have a record of who attended. Then as I went through the wedding cards I transfered the information about the gift given along side the name on the list. I was amused to read what people had given us and did a mental check off of what of that still exists in my home. The items remaining list was short but I found myself thinking ~ ‘Oh, so and so gave me that, well done, I got really good use out of that or I still have that!’. I have started a keepsake file on my computer to store this information should I ever feel compelled to review it.

Most of the stuff I really just had a quick glance at, decided I hadn’t looked at it properly since the day it went into the box and put it aside to recycle. Keepsake is a well constructed word to describe this kind of item, we keep it just for the sake of it. We think we will cherish it forever and look back on it in the future but how far into the future do we go before we ever really care to look at it. My husband and I  have been married for 24 years and if it took till now to look in those cards then we don’t really need to keep them. Given the failure rate of marriage, the fact that we are still together after all these years is enough for me and I only care to look forward to another 24 years. I don’t need clutter to remind me how good my life has been and it gets better every day.

Part of the process was to divide and conquer.

Today’s Declutter Item

These are the items that were decluttered from the box. The box was empty once I was done while the few items I kept were transfered to another box with will be the subject of further decluttering.

The Keepsake Items Decluttered

Something I Am Grateful For Today

That the sun shone brightly today for my son to finally achieve the sun exposure photo project for his final body of work for one of his university photography courses. The weather has not been very cooperative for this entire project so I was grateful that he finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“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

In a comment this week Dizzy suggested I republish this post because she thought it was an oldie but a goodie. And since I seem to be having a hard time getting my act together this week after being away all weekend I thought I would comply to her suggestion. I actually enjoyed it when I reread it and thought you might all enjoy it too. So without further ado here it is.

Day 243 Memory clutter

Me & my Trophies

There is one thing or actually a big group of things in my home that are looking down the barrel of being decluttered before the 365 days are up. The group in question are my old sports trophies. I have mentioned these before and still haven’t done anything about them but the day of reckoning is coming.

Trophies come under the same banner as souvenirs and little trinkets that serve no other purpose but to remind you of days gone by. They scream “look what I did”, “look where I’ve been” and maybe even the sad cry of  “I’m living in the past”. Personally unless your future appears dull and you aren’t likely to create any new achievements or live any new adventures do you really need to live in the past.

No matter what your age or circumstance you always have the ability to make new memories, achieve something new and possibly visit new places. My bad shoulder may have put an end to my softball and indoor cricket days but there are plenty of interesting things to do with my time like reaching out to a world of people with my blog to name just one.

Sure these old adventures and  achievements are worth remembering but they weren’t so dull that you need clutter to constantly remind you of those days. I know I don’t need my trophies to remind me of the good times I had with old friends and the individual set of talents I had that contributed to our sporting achievements. I will always remember those days and the great lessons learned from some wonderful coaches and mentors. I just don’t need to dust those memories every week.

I will however get my husband to photograph the trophies and I may even save the little plaques from the front of each of them but even then I expect I will rarely look back at those photos but they will be there just in case.

* * * * * * *

It wasn’t until May this year that I finally decluttered the trophies. Why did it take so long? Because with the 365 approach to decluttering I did it when I was good and ready. When a good method of disposal presented itself I grabbed it with both hands and sent them to be recycled by the trophy store near my house. I don’t know how much of them they used but it was a better option than just throwing them in the trash.

Today’s Declutter Item

And here is another piece of memory clutter from way back. This flower press holds some flowers that my husband gave me before we were married. Being as we have been married for almost 24 years I think we have created enough new memories that we don’t need to cling to these old ones. 

Flower Press

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I watched American Pickers tonight and saw the agony on one old guys face parting with two very special bikes. I am so grateful I am not attached to my stuff like that. These people must go to there grave with thousands of dollars worth of stuff left behind for someone else to deal with.

“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

My Grandfather passed almost exactly eight years ago, a few years after the passing of my Grandmother. They had lived on the same farm their whole married life – 64 years – although a few decades ago they built a new house steps from the old, drafty one, and knocked the old house down. Sixty-four years worth of living and six now adults kids’ worth of memories in that house. My cousins, who already had a houseful, were moving in. I helped my family try to organize the house and to make room for the cousins’ belongings.

At the end of my time in Iowa, I had a small pile of treasures – some useful items and some keepsakes – that I loaded into a picnic basket and shipped home to myself. Plus I had a wedding ring that belonged to my Great Grandmother. I put the wedding ring on my ring finger, and it’s stayed there ever since. (Ironically, I’ve learned since that she and her husband were hoarders, with the sort of house you had to weave a path through!) The rest of the stuff was waiting for me when I got home. Without opening it, I put the picnic basket in the bottom of my closet, and there it sat – noticed but unopened – for eight years. Why? I’m not sure. I can’t claim I forgot about it: My closet isn’t deep, and it’s sitting right there, in front. At first, I was sad about the passing of two of my favorite people. Then I guess habit just took over, and the picnic basket sat and sat, until last week when Audra wanted to see what was inside. I confess: It was as much of a treasure hunt for me as it was for the girls. It occurred to me that on a very small scale, this picnic basket was a lot like some of those storage units that we discussed last week.

I remembered that I had packed all the photos of my immediate family that I had come across, as well as letters from us that Grandma had saved. Here’s what else there was that I did not remember, at all: a pearl necklace, a plain woman’s watch that I do not remember my Grandmother wearing, a vinyl table cloth, a large piece of children’s fabric, a baby’s Baptism gown, two cafeteria style divided trays, a yellowed Yahtzee score pad, a bag of checkers, a piece of now molded embroidery, and a single plain cloth napkin. All I could think was: What in the world?

I put the tablecloth, the cafeteria trays, and the watch straight into the thrift store box. I can imagine that eight years ago I thought these items could be useful (mat for under the baby’s highchair, toddler dinner plates, utilitarian time piece). The embroidery went into the trash, and the napkin joined the others in the cabinet. I washed the fabric for a project that I plan to do with the girls, although I’m mystified as to what I had originally imagined I would do with it. Whose Baptism gown is this? The pearls I put into my jewelry box, the checkers pieces went upstairs because Clara thought she’d lost a piece from our set, and I put the Yahtzee pad in our game box, although we’re certainly am not in danger of running out of score sheets. But why, I have to ask myself, were these the things that I thought I needed or wanted from my Grandparent’s house? Except for the photos, letters and Baptism gown, these items obviously weren’t saved as keepsakes; I thought they were useful and valuable. Time passed, I didn’t use them, and now they’re garage sale fodder.

Next time you’re in a store, at a garage sale, or cleaning out a box that you’re struggling with, ask yourself, “If I’d not seen this item for 8 years, would I know the difference? Would I care? If I bought it today and put it away without using it, would I use it in a year or two when I got it back out?” They answer might be yes, but I think more likely, it will be no.

Today’s Declutter Item

I picked up this fishing tackle box at a garage sale years ago in Seattle. It got used to store nuts and bolts and the like. Last week my husband was bored so he had a little garage clean up, emptied all the nut and bolts out of it and I sent the box to the thrift shop. Now I just have to figure out what to put the nuts and bolts in so I can take them to the thrift shop. Perhaps we should have sent it as a job lot. Oh well, live and learn. 

Tackle Box

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Once again I am grateful to my parents for being the kind of handy folk who fixed things rather than through them away and purchase a new one. I am thankful because they handed those skills down to me. Today I had to once again do a repair on my son’s backpack. Theres is another $50 I didn’t have to spend and another item saved from landfill.

“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

When Colleen wrote Have Storage Will Clutter, I assumed it would be about storage units, which exist all over the US, some row after row of garages, and others (literally) high rise buildings with full heating and air conditioning services. Some people’s junk in the US lives better than many citizens.

Recently I was  at a class with my eldest daughter and was telling one of the fathers about the blog. He immediately told me that his chore for that day was cleaning out the garage. The coach then approached and asked if we were talking about cleaning out a storage unit. The man said, “No, but we have one of those that needs to be emptied too.” Then the coach shared that she has three storage units. She is going on a trip to Europe soon and noted that the units cost about a European trip per year. She claimed that she intends to clean out one unit when she returns (although I have to say, her commitment to this seemed very half baked, like one of those things that you just get used to saying like “I’m going to start exercising”). I challenged her to empty all three units. Bizarrely, she then said, “Oh no, I’m a minimalist” but had to return to coaching before I could find out how in the world having three storage units and being a minimalist could possibly be related. (Ok, truthfully, I was too busy trying not to snort loudly and rudely to find out more.)

I asked the father why he had a storage unit. He said that they intend to turn half of their garage into an exercise room. In order to work toward this goal, they’d cleaned out part of the garage and put it in storage. At least some of the stuff in the storage unit are items that will be in the exercise room. He told me that the unit was about a cheap as they come at $110 per month (about the same AUD, 81 Euro) and that he’d spent over $1000 (741 Euro) on the unit so far. One thousand dollars and no exercise room yet. The gym closest to my house is $70 a month for a family membership. They could have been working out for the past 14 months for the money that’s gone into this storage unit.

The last example of Have Storage, Will Clutter is a couple I know. Their adult children live in Texas. The parents thought that they would move from California, more than 1000 miles away, to Texas. When one of the children got a long-term overseas assignment, the parents packed up their belongings, sold their condominium, and move into their son’s house. Because the son’s house was fully furnished, they kept some of their personal items, and the rest of their belongings went into storage. This makes sense to me. Having their items in storage was cheaper than continuing to pay for a whole condominium for them, and they knew that their living arrangements were temporary. Eighteen months later, their son returned, and the parents moved back to California, leaving their stored items behind. For a while it was unclear what would happen next, but now more than five years have passed. The parents definitely aren’t moving to Texas, and their belongings are still here, still in storage. They don’t seem to have any intention of repossessing their items, which include furniture, clothing, household items, and collectibles, nor do they seem to have any intention of paying to have these items moved to California. Every year when they visit Austin for two or three days, they visit the storage unit – presumably to get something out of it, but I really don’t know. (Maybe to put something in!!) If the average unit is $100 a month, five years of storage comes to $6600 (4890 Euros). In the meantime, they’ve purchased replacement furniture and electronics for their home in California. My estimate is that this folly has cost them at least $10,000. I don’t really know what to say about this story. It truly mystifies me, but I do know that if storage units weren’t so convenient, something else would have been done with these belongings, rather than just having them sit in climate-controlled comfort year after year.

If you have a storage unit, my first advice to you is to leave the house alone and declutter the storage. You’re throwing money away when what you need to do is make some hard choices and probably many easy choices and live within the space you have available to you. All those “valuable” items you may find hard to part with because “they cost good money” are getting more and more costly each day that you pay to store them. Have storage, will clutter, indeed!

Today’s Declutter Item

I bought this carry file about 15 years ago when working as a teacher’s aide in my children’s first school. That was seven schools ago and it has hardly been used for its intended purpose since. I think it is well past time I let it go.

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File Folder Bag

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I had a wonderful day today giving a friend a belated birthday treat. We had a coffee, went to the Hunter Valley Gardens (first time for both of us) and had our favour Tom Yum soup for lunch. Everything was perfect including the weather. See photos below.

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

I received an email last weekend which I will share with you now along with what was going to be my response but which turned into a post.

Hi Colleen, I’ve been going back over the archives and couldn’t find anything about the little notices you get at funeral homes. I have the one from when my mom died, but I also have several more I just don’t know what to do with. I notice that sometimes when I leave the funeral some people just leave them on the chair but I feel bad so I just take mine. I thought maybe you would have a good idea what to do with them. Right now I just throw them in the box with my yearbooks and other things my family can throw out when I’m gone. Any ideas would be great. Thanks.

My quick response to the emailer: My quick answer to this question is that you wouldn’t be asking if you really wanted to keep them so save the ones that really mean something to you (your mother’s for example) and recycle the rest. I sounds from your email that you are only keeping the others out of respect and obligation. Throwing away a piece of paper does not lessen your respect so don’t feel obliged to keep them.

I have found that my initial response to this question was becoming so long that I might as well make a post about it. Would you mind if I use your email in the body of this post?

Now for the post that resulted from this email

My advice to you is to only keep the ones you feel compelled to keep. By all means accept the ones offered on the occasion out of respect but feel free to dispose of them when you return home. Once someone is gone there is no forgetting they are gone and I am sure we don’t need reminding of that. If you do however feel compelled to keep all of these items I would suggest storing them as you would your photos, in an acid free environment. You could if you prefer scan the items and save them digitally. This takes up less physical space but can still be viewed if desired. I think though that if you find you are never unearthing these items to view but only stubble upon them periodically when adding to the collection you really need to ask yourself, how much do they really matter.

Last week I was asked, during a radio gig I did, what do I do with birthdays cards after the event. I said I leave them on display for that month (sometimes less) and then throw them in the recycling bin. I see no practical purpose in saving these things. Greeting cards are intended to show that someone cares for you once we are reminded of that do we really need to save them for future reference. I don’t think anyone is expecting you to save their cards year in year out. Think about when someone phones you on your birthday, they wish you a happy birthday, share that bit of time to show they care for you and then hang up, you can’t hold on the call forever but you can hold on to the memory. You can do the same with cards, enjoy them for what they are at the time and then let them go.

That being said I do save some birthday cards, usually only the ones my children give me that I feel are that bit special, due to the written personal sentiment. Though I must admit I rarely retrieve them from their hiding place and gaze upon them with loving eyes. To be quite honest I seem to have an unusally amazing memory for when my children say lovely things to or about me. I just keep the cards as proof just in case I have to use them as evidence against them ~ Just Kidding about that last bit!

I do much the same with Christmas cards, I leave them on display until the new year and then recycle them. I cut out the pictures on the front to use in producing my handmade cards for next year and put the remainder in the recycling bin. It is probably time I got to making this years cards as the holiday season will be here before we know it.

As usual with decluttering if you love all the greeting cards you receive and can’t bring yourself to part with any of them that is what is right for you. If however you have been keeping them out of obligation or tradition it really is OK not to. Try it with the next occasion, enjoy them for what they are at the time, a reminder that someone loves you, display them for a week or two and then let them go.

Today’s Declutter Item

The bag that is today’s clutter was used to carry home an item my mother-in-law kindly gave me some time back. I was please to receive a steam mop from her that she had received as a freebee when she bought a new vacuum cleaner. I have tiled floor and I thought it would be good for giving the grout a good once over every now and again. It proved to be pretty much ineffective so it went to the thrift store. The bag gto shuffled to the bottom of my daughters closet where I found it last week. I figured I would never remember to return it to my MIL so I sent it to the thrift store with a load of other stuff.

Hidden Clutter

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Every night that I hear my son’s motorbike roll up to the garage door after his late night work shifts I feel relieved and grateful that he is home safe and sound. I don’t mind that I am roused at 2:30 or 4:30 am I sleep more soundly in the knowledge that he is home.

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