I have had a few encounters lately with people lamenting the “disappearance” of childhood “treasures”.

Example 1: I was at an afternoon tea party with some young women one of which had a baby daughter. The subject got around to children’s toys and one of the young women was somewhat befuddled as to what had happened to her childhood collection of Strawberry Shortcake toys. “I wonder what happened to them, I suppose my mother got rid of them, I really don’t remember, I wish I still had them!”.

Example 2: On a separate occasion there was some mention of the that a relative in my family never saved her daughters toys to give to her children. I am not sure how this subject came up or where it went but it was lost on me.

Example 3: While talking to a friend of mine and her grown daughter the subject came up about Lego. I told them that my son had sold his Lego to a family friend because he no longer wanted it but needed the money to save for a trip to America. These women were horrified that I would allow him to part with these toys because ~ “When he has children of his own the sets that he had will no longer be available!” And to be honest, among the Lego he sold were two sets that were his fathers, given to him by his grandmother who had saved them.

The question is, am I the strange one or do many people fill their attics, basements, closets and garages with boxes of old toys of their own or their children in the hope that they can share the experience with their children/grandchildren some day. Where does one draw the line when it comes to these toys. I must confess even as I write this I remember that there is a box of Star Wars action toys and a box of Thomas the Tank Engine toys in the top of my son’s cupboard and I have saved a couple of my daughter’s old teddy bears but I do periodically give them the choice to keep them or pass them on. Of course these are the toys that were the most special to them or in my son’s case are not only toys but collectors items.

I remember the toys of my childhood that were, for many years, the focus of our vacation entertainment. Aside from some board games there was an old construction set, my brothers Meccano Set, our electric train set, the dolls my sister and I had, some cubby house items and my brothers old adjustable rollerskates. Aside from that we made up own fun. These items, like I said, were around for almost all of our childhood years but I never once thought to berate my mother for disposing of them when we had all grew up. I didn’t ever think, why didn’t she save them for our children.

Is it just a case for some people of, I don’t have it any more therefore I want it. Which sounds an awful lot like the same motivation for shopping constantly for things people don’t need. If in fact a person does have children of their own (and that is not guaranteed) the children aren’t likely to feel like they are missing out on the experience their parents had unless it is instilled in them that they should be. I say “There is no use crying over spilled milk if the toys are gone they are gone.”. And also be selective about what you save if you must insist on doing so. Only keep the very special items and when the time come to share them with your child or grandchildren don’t be disappointed if they are unimpressed.

I remember when I was a young teenager in my first job at a book store. During break times I would sit at the desk in the back room reading whatever was on hand while I ate my snack. One day there was a kiddies book called Monty Mouse which I found most entertaining due to the fact that instead of drawn illustrations the book had photos of a taxidermic mouse posed in many different scenes of adventure. By sheer chance many years later when my children were young I happened upon a copy of this very book at a second hand stall at a railway station. I was so excited to buy it to share with my children. I have to say they were a lot less impressed than I was and it never did become one of their favourite books like I expected it would.

I have always given my children the choice of what to do with their toys. I think it is good to include them in the decision making process so they don’t think they have been deprived of anything. I have never forced them to part with them but they usually decide to donate them or sell them in order to make way for the next best thing that is suitable for their new age group. I suppose that because they have been raised with me decluttering things it is a natural progress for them to do the same when they outgrow their stuff. I suppose it is therefore true that for children who have been raised with the idea that things possess unfathomable sentimental value they will likely forever have a problem with parting with things.

Today’s Declutter Item

The item today is an example of my children making their own choices when it comes to their toys. These plates were a part of my son’s Snoopy collection that started when he was about three years old. It has grown and followed us around for 17 years but he decided some time back that he had outgrown it and was happy to pass it on. I have been trying to sell parts of it for him in the hope of earning him a little cash. These plates sold on eBay last weekend for $25.oo. Mission accomplished. Some of it has also been Freecycled and the rest I think will be donated. 

Part of my Son's old Snoopy Collection

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I had a very successful eBay weekend and you will soon be able to see photos of the items that were sold in the Item Of The Day section over the next week or so. I netted about $370 and sold some items I have been wanted to part with for some time. As us Aussies say, I am a happy little Vegemite and so is my son and my daughter will be when she finds out I sold her keyboard for $80.

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

How much space is taken up in your home with clutter from the person you once were. Do you still have…

1. Sports equipment the will never be used again.
2. Clothes that no longer fit.
3. Musical instruments that you never really learned to play.
4. College papers that are long out of date.
5. Hobby supplies that you lost interest in some time ago.
6. Music that you are embarrassed to say you once loved.
7. Love letters from a faded romance.
8. Books you read once and will never read again.
9. Enough linen, crockery, cutlery etc to cater for your family of five when now it is just the two of you.
10. Shelves of bric-a-brac that you no longer have the energy to dust.
11. Tools in the garage that you no longer have the dexterity to use.
12. Eyeglasses from when your vision was much closer to 20 20.
13. Business suits from the job you retired from years ago.
14. Supplies to put on those elaborate dinner parties you no longer could be bothered catering for. A simple meal with friends is now more your style.
15. Gardening tools from a era gone by when you had the time to garden.

Like most lists of clutter this one could go on and on but I think you get the picture.

I know I will never play softball again, my shoulder is damaged enough from that previous life. I have let go of items of clothing that are not really suited to me now that I am in my mid forties. I have let go of my cross-stitch fabrics because there is little chance that I will go back to that craft. I prefer sensible shoes to high heals that kill my feet (Give me comfort over vanity any day).I have downsized my dining suite because 90% of the year there are only three of us eating at it. The ski equipment is gone because we no longer live near ski fields.  As I mentioned on Tuesday, the storage containers are being decluttered because I refuse to go back to the level of clutter I once owned. And there are many more things that I have let go of that no longer fit with my current life.

There is no shame in moving on to the next phase of your life and there is no point desperately clinging on the the past. Be happy with the person you are now, embrace the new you. Let go of the items from your past that, if you are realistic, you know you no longer need. They are just cluttering up your life and holding you back.

Today’s Declutter Item

One thing I know I won’t be needin is baby clothes. I am not sure why I have held on to these ones. Probably because one of the grandmothers made them for my daughter. I am only keeping the really significant baby items to pass on to my kids. The little DUCATI sweater I knitted that both kids wore, the layette by mum made for when I brought my daughter home from the hospital and a couple of other items. 

Baby Clothes

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am glad that the customers and nearby business people are starting to get to know me at the thrift shop. I know some of them by name now and vice versa and I am really feeling at home there. I always seem to get more satisfaction from jobs that I make no money from.

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

I personally feel that anticipating regrets, especially attached to objects, is a waste of time. It’s like clinging to old routines or traditions just because of their history, we put aside the fact that they are inconvenient or obsolete just because they are familiar.

To give you an example of that ~ Lets talk about Christmas. My mother loves for all of her children to come home and be together at Christmas and is disappointed nearly every year by the fact that this rarely happens. Two of us live no less than 900km away, one of which due to spouse’s work commitments only gets four weeks vacation time a year. While the other has the same situation as does their spouse and also have their children’s obligations to consider. Two others have their own businesses to run, which affords them even less flexibility with vacation time. Add the fact that the worse time to travel is during Christmas which carries the highest road toll (deaths by car accident) of any other time of the year and commercial travel is at its most expensive.  Meanwhile my parents have been retired for over 25 years and can pick up and travel whenever they please. Yet just because it is Christmas and a beautiful time to spend with family we should just ignore all the other issues and make the effort to get together.

What has this got to do with clutter you ask. Some people use the same kinds of self defeating reasoning when they look at their belongings. Regardless of how much they hate the clutter, no matter how impractical it is to store, clean, work around, move… they still find some kind of sentimental reasoning to keep it. So continuously they live with all these inconveniences in the unlikely event that some time in the future they may need to use this item or regard it fondly because of the memories it evokes.

I am not saying that everyone should get rid of everything impractical in their lives just for convenience sake. I am saying that if you are feeling suffocated by your clutter and that feeling is permanently invading you life then there is only two things to do…

1. Put up with that feeling and all the inconvenience due to the clutter.
2. Do something about it. Start eliminating the things that are not of real significance to you or are not being used.

I have not regretted a single thing I have gotten rid of yet. Every now and again a situation has arisen where I could have used an item I got rid of but those occasions are so rare and of no consequence. Having an uncluttered easy to care for home however is a treat that I get to enjoy every day and I am loving it.

Today’s Declutter Item

I took another look in my kitchen cupboard and came up with these two little pie plates. I can’t remember the last time I used them so I figured I didn’t really need them. They will accompany me to the thrift store next week.

Two Little Pie Plates

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My sleep was interrupted last night so I decided to sleep in this morning. Even with the extra hour lie in and a lazy start I still got all my housework done by 1pm. I love a small decluttered house. And now in the spirit of this weeks mini missions I am using up all of my leftover vegetables by making vegetable curry for dinner.

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

Sentimental clutter, the final post in the Disassociation Series. Last but not least that is, because this one can be the most insidious of all of the categories of clutter. It sneaks up on you and binds itself to you like a barnacle to a rock. It can be a beautiful thing and a ball and chain all at the same time.

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that all sentimental items are clutter. I own sentimental items that I have no intentions of ever parting with and I don’t consider them clutter. I have also decluttered many items that had sentimental value that I wasn’t compelled to keep once I decided what was more important to me, the item or the space. There were also sentimental items that never saw the light of day and under those conditions one has to ask the question ~ How much sentimental value does it have if…

• I never look at it.
• I don’t care to put it out on display.
• I still recall the event, person or place without ever viewing the item.
• it is more trouble to care for it than I care about it.

Sometimes, I think, we feel obliged to keep these items simply because we went to the trouble of collecting them in the first place and have had them for so long. But as *pol put it so eloquently in a comment this week ~ …this living for today lifestyle is so much EASIER than living with the memorabilia and what-ifs! Everything can breathe. I can breathe. If you feel you are being suffocated by your stuff then why not sort the wheat from the chaff, decide what pieces really mean the most to you and eliminate the rest.

The slow and steady approach to decluttering is a good way to weed out the sentimental items that really don’t hold that much importance to you. To declutter one a day or even one a week is less of a wretch than trying to declutter several at once. Ease in it! Pick an item that you really could live without and send it on its way. Once you feel OK about that move on to another item and do the same. Before long you start to realise that this exercise isn’t so bad after all and you are feeling no residual effect in the way of regret. Choose wisely though and only eliminate when you are sure and ready.

Just to clarify what I mean when I say sentimental item. This is an item that you hold some sort of emotional attachement to. It could be anything form the beautiful china from a passed loved one to a piece of driftwood you collected on a vacation years ago or even a kitchen utensil that you no longer use but was once so helpful to you. We hold allegiances to these items for what they represent while at the same time realise that we want to live a life with less clutter. That trick is to determine which way the scales fall for each individual item and make your choice.

I just read this statement by Peter Walsh which is so relavant to this post that I just had to add it. ~ Holding onto important items from the past is not a bad thing – unless remembering the past becomes more important than living your life today.

Tip: If you are on the fence, so to speak, about letting go of items that brings memories? Why not take photos of them, frame the photos together to enjoy and part with the clutter. You can also scan paper clutter items and save them to your computer where they take up much less real space.

Today’s Declutter Item

Oddly enough this item holds sentimental value for me. I rarely use it these days but I feel a little indebted to it because of its years of good service. Do I have space in the kitchen for it, sure I do. But my kitchen become more user friendly with every item I remove form it. The less cramped my cupboards are the easier it is to find the useful items I use regularly. So I am breaking my ties with this item and letting it go.

Rotary Grater

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful for the cluster of little shops up the street from my house. It is within walking distance and when I have no idea what to have for dinner I can go up there and ask the friendly butcher what is good today. Then I can go to the little greengrocer to buy any veggies I need to go with it. I could also go to the Sara Lee outlet for a cheesecake dessert. It is all very convenient when one doesn’t have the car and I am helping keep the “little guy” in business.

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

You are probably wondering how does security fit into the clutter equation, and of course I am going to give you my answer to that. Sometimes we keep our clutter because we want to be secure in the fact that it will be there just in case we do need it one day. We may think we will need it to remind us of loved ones or good times and don’t want those memories to slip through our grasp. We may think we need it because it may actually come in useful one day. And in extreme case we may think we need it to stave off some impending disaster that might befall us.

Either way we keep things for the secure feeling they offer us.

But tell me this, will you really forget the ones you love or have loved in your life just because you rid yourself of a trinket that you are tired of dusting. In some cases this can be an object the you don’t even like and never have but for the memories it holds. I can assure you that the thing holds nothing, it is you that holds those memories. If, by some unfortunate fate, your memories fade, the knowledge of what that thing represents will probably fade with it.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with holding on to things that hold significants for you but do you need to cling to twenty objects that represent the same significance? Would not one of two or your favourites suffice? When I first began my 365 less things challenge I owned numerous items that were given to me after my Grandmother died. I have since reduce those item to two. The cup I used at her home when I was little and the Crucifix that stood on her coffin during the church service. I still use the cup and the Crucifix stands on my bedside cabinet. But even without those items I know my memories of her would still be strong and clear.

As for the “I might need it some day” clutter. My husband has a tool in the garage for bleeding the brakes on his motorbike. It is something that he uses very infrequently, doesn’t take up much room, can’t be substituted by anything else and saves us money. Therefore it would be silly to get rid of it. However, I have a rotary grater in my kitchen that I only use for one recipe, a sharp knife could perform the same task, it is kind of bulky, and I have several other graters, so I think it is about time I got rid of this item.

Ask yourself the following question when it comes to these kinds of items…

• Have I used it in the last three months?
• If I am not using it now what are the chances that I am going to use it in the future.
• Could I get by without it even if I eventually did started doing the thing that it is useful for?
• Could something else I own perform the same task?
• Do I use it often enough to warrant the space it takes up?
• Could I borrow one from a friend or family member should I “need” one in the future?

The fact of the matter is that you have come to my blog for a reason. You have most likely already decided that you have got to a stage where you would rather a life without your clutter than to keep it. You and only you can decide what stays and what goes. Begin with the easy things and let momentum drive you forward. Once you start to see the difference your steady decluttering is making, you may just become more ruthless with the things you once thought you couldn’t live without.

Then there is the extreme case. Maybe you have got to the stage where you feel you need to hoard all kinds of things that aren’t being used because you would feel insecure without them present. In this case perhaps it is time to do the Clutter Image Rating Scale to determine the extent of your clutter and whether you need to seek professional help. Hoarding is an illness not a life choice so please if you think you are in too deep seek help.

Today’s Declutter Item

We sold this chest of drawers for $30 through the community message board at my husband’s workplace.

Chest or Drawers

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful that four and a half years ago we chose the townhouse we are now living in as our new home. We wanted to live in this area but there were no houses available so we settled for this townhouse. Little did I know how much happier I would be in a smaller home. Isn’t it amazing how one can change their mindset from being envious of their neighbours for their bigger homes to being grateful that those big homes aren’t mine to clean and care for. If it wasn’t for this choice I dare say I would still be swimming in clutter. Thank you hand of fate.

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

In the spirit of optimism I was anticipating a jump in Australian readers today due to my live-to-air radio gig on Nightlife with Tony Delroy on ABC radio last night. If that is the case I would like to extend a hearty…

…to those new readers and I hope you will find my blog informative, helpful, friendly and at times maybe even a little entertaining.

Aspirational clutter is any items that you aspire to using one day but one day never seems to come or items you used to use and “intend” to use again, but that never seems to happen. This could include…

• Craft/hobby supplies that you used to enjoy using but haven’t touched in ages.
• Bits and pieces of things that you swear you are going to make something out of. For example computer parts.
• The broken down old car in the back yard that has been sitting there for years.
• A shelf full of cookbooks that are only gathering dust while you cook the same old favourites that you know the family loves and you could make with your eyes shut.
• Books piled up on shelves that you read years ago and keep for the day you are inspired to read them again.
• That boat in the shed that has been rotting away while waiting for you to retire by the lake.
• Sporting equipment for a sport you think you might want to take up again when you have more time.
• Clothes you will fit into again when you lose that 20lbs you gain when 5 year old Johny was born.

…all of which are likely to be one or all of the following ~ out of date, out of fashion, perishing, collecting dust, wasting space and worst of all causing you angst.

When these items come into your field of vision they usually make you cringe either because of the money you have wasted on them, the disappointment in yourself for not living up to your own expectations or frustration from not having the time or energy to devote to them and knowing that you probably never will. In some cases these items represent an interest that although you had an idea to dabble in you really didn’t have the aptitude for.

My first advice is don’t be too hard on yourself and also don’t ever let this situation deter you from aspiring to other dreams in the future. My second piece of advice is to make a calculated choice as to what unsettles you the most, the thought of decluttering these items or thought of continuing to live with them cluttering up your home. What is greater, the chance that you are never going to use them or the chance that you are going to regret getting rid of them? Can you perhaps downsize your collection and see how you feel about that rather than getting rid of it all in one fell swoop.

If you find yourself on the fence, so to speak, not able to make a decision one way of the other perhaps it’s time to enlist the opinion of those close to you. Your wife may have been biting her tongue for months/years waiting for you to remove that eyesore from the back yard. You husband is secretly delighted that you might finally declutter your craft supplies and free up some space so he can reconfigure his well used office area. The kids will be so relieved that all that junk is out of the garage and they can get in and out of the car without worrying about scratching the paint on the doors. The thought that one choice could bring pleasure to someone you love may just make the decision a whole lot easier.

Finally, if you do decide to declutter don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t dwell on guilt, regret or disappointment. Rejoice in the fact the you have added tranquility to your surroundings, relief from unfulfilled aspirations and the freedom to open your mind up to new pursuits. With a little effort you may be able to find a new owner for you stuff who will immediately use and enjoy the gifts you bestow on them.

The lesson for the future is to try before you buy next time. Make sure you are ready, willing and able to enjoy the next pursuit you aspire to before equipping yourself for it. And even when you are sure, make certain to only take on enough supplies/equipment to enjoy the pastime without it taking over your life and space.

Today’s Declutter Item

Some of these old records have been with me for thirty plus years and most of them haven’t been played for about twenty years. I am not sure why I have hung on to them for so long. I am sure most of them are available on CD or can be downloaded to iPod and lets face it we decluttered the record player back on day 150 of my challenge back on May 30 last year.

My Old Records

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Although I am writing this post in advance I know that today I am going to be grateful and relieved that my live-to-air radio experience is now in my past and that anxiety is out of the way for now. I hope that I have proved to myself I can handle a situation like that just in case I am called upon to do it again in the future.

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

Take one smug looking son and put him in front of a playstation….

One smug son

…grab the dusty box of his stuff out of the garage that he offered to declutter…

…hold up each item for his judgement while he plays EA Skate 3. Grab his other box while he is keen to cooperate and follow the same procedure as you did with the first…(Lets face it he really didn’t have to make much effort with the first one.)

Divide all the items into KEEP…

Keep Items ~ (6 t-shirts, 1 Christmas stocking, 1 Snoopy, 1 baby cardigan knitted by his mother, 1 Mariners antena ball and the t-shirt that was cut from him when he had his accident last year)

…DONATE…

Donation Items (29 t-shirts, 1 hoodie, 2 teddies and a Christmas Stocking)

…and POSSIBLE SELLABLE ITEMS…(These will be donated if they don’t sell).

Twelve months ago there was no way my son was going to part with these items, what a difference a year makes. And it was his idea to go through the items in the first place. What a lucky mum I am to get such great cooperation.

We emptied one huge 70Qt/66Lt box, I used it to store some other empty small boxes in the garage. I put all the selling items, together with some others already in the garage waiting, in the much smaller box. Now there is a completely empty 4 foot shelf in the garage. Yay!!!!

Often someone else will turn on the television while I am in the room but I am not really watching it. It is however hard to ignore news broadcasts about all the natural disasters that keep happening this year. The latest disaster in Japan is horrifying to behold and conjures up a lot of feelings and deep thought.

I don’t know about you but my first reaction was ‘Oh my god, all those people dead, injured and missing!’ Watching the tsunami destroy everything in its path, lives, buildings, cars, ships… The sadness and misery felt by those left behind trying to come to terms with the loss of loved ones while having to deal with their homes being destroyed. Nowhere to go, no place of comfort except hopefully in the arms of other loved ones who survived.

When we witness disasters like these the last thing we think of, if at all, is the trivial stuff in those peoples lives. Stop and think for a minute. If this happened to you, would you really be thinking ‘Oh my God, what has happened to that  unused silver tea set Aunt Maud gave us as a wedding gift.’ No! So why do we have such a hard time parting with such things when times are good? Next time you are having trouble parting with items like this or any such trivial stuff stop and think for a minute how important this item would be in a disaster situation and be realistic about its importance in your life.

Maybe sell off these items and donate the money to someone less fortunate than you. This option would certainly alleviate any guilt you feel about Aunt Maud’s feelings. We really are lucky when we have the time and energy to concern ourselves with such things. Why not share that good fortune with someone else instead of hoarding it in the back of a cupboard somewhere in the comforting home that you share with the people you love.

Now before you get all up in arms about me being cruel, uncaring and insensitive about the fact that we all have crosses to bare in this world. I didn’t write this post to make you feel ashamed, I wrote it to help you let go of those items that you keep clinging on to even though you really don’t want them in your life. If you have items in your home that will never realise their worth, there is always someone out there who may enjoy them more or benefit from the funds they generated. I sincerely hope that this post will help you let go and I am prepared to stick my neck out in order to help you achieve that.

Today’s Declutter Item

Just another item of clothing that wasn’t being used. (Donated to the thrift store)

Things that made me  feel grateful today.

• How privileged I am.
• The joy I get from donating the things I don’t use to others who may use them.
• Feeling safe even though I know anything can happen when you least expect it.
• That in my life I have only ever lost two people close to me from anything other than old age.
• That learning to let go of stuff gets easier the more I realise how little it matters.

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

Taking into consideration the theme of yesterday’s mini missions I thought that I would write a post today about defining sentimental clutter. One would be forgiven for thinking that if the item has sentimental value then it isn’t clutter and on the face of it I would agree. When I refer to sentimental clutter though I am really talking about items with a personal history element to them that we keep even though we don’t like them enough to use them or even go out of our way to look at them. In some cases we may have lost all interest in these items some time ago but keep them because we feel it is the done thing to preserve that history. Worse still sometimes we keep them because we feel duty bound to do so simply because someone else gave them to us.

There is no limit to the type of items that can fit into this category people keep all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. Locks of hair, books, clothes, furniture, trinkets, jewellery, tools, toys, china, cutlery, shoes, kidney stone yes that’s right I said kidney stone. Check out this post from Day 341 and especially take time to read the comments and you will find out what truly bazaar stuff some of my reader have lurking in their homes.

Quite often the longer we hang on to this stuff the harder it is to part with afraid of some future regret of wishing we had it back. Even more often we wish we had never kept it in the first place because now we feel we are stuck with it.  I kid you not I have come across plenty of people wanting to declutter their homes who wish the place would just catch fire when the family is out so they don’t have to deal with making the decision to divorce themselves from these “sentimental” items.

The thing to remember is that you will always have your memories and stuff really doesn’t matter. Sometimes we place far too much importance on stuff. We tie our memories, our achievements and  our losses to this stuff and that makes it very hard to part with. The stuff merely jogs our memories it doesn’t contain them. It is not disrespectful to anyone to pass on items that you no longer want. It is your home and you and only you should decide how you want to live in it. If your desire to live a life with less is stronger than your desire to keep things you no longer need, want or use then you are free to do what you want with those things. And if our memories do fade the stuff won’t mean anything to us anyway.

Today’s Declutter Item

Sentimental clutter can exist in the form of vacation souvenirs. This cute little Harrods bear really lends no special meaning to our lives so we have no need to keep it. It would be easy to cling on to this for years to come as a reminder of a wonderful holiday but we have plenty of memories without the clutter so out it goes.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy.

• Finding the enthusiasm to do a couple of odd jobs about the house that I have been ignoring.
• Having coffee with my friend Amber – This has become a Monday ritual.
• Knowing what I am cooking for dinner – having all the ingredients in the pantry to make it with. I love being organised for dinner.
• A early morning phone call from my girl – It is nice to just chat sometimes without any reason.
• Good Friends that help me out when I need it.

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

Hi folks, this week’s mini missions are going to center around keepsake items. You might be surprised at how many places in your home these little blighters are hiding. You may also be surprised to realize how many you keep just for the sake of it but don’t really care that much about. So, we are going to do a bit of a “don’t care enough to keep you” keepsake round-up. When contemplating each item, your first thoughts may go to the occasion/person/place that they remind you of and get you all sentimental. Don’t stop at your first thought! Take five deep breaths and channel your rational side for a few minutes and ask yourself…

• Do I want to continue dusting/cleaning/polishing this item?
• Is this item taking up valuable space in my home?
• Will not having this item affect the memories I have of this person, place or event?
• Does it mean more to me to have a decluttered home or to keep this item?

There is no right or wrong response to any of these questions. If the item truly is meaningful to you by all means put it back where you found it and keep enjoying it for years to come. If, however, you are on the fence as to whether to keep it or not consider other ways to preserve the memories without the clutter. You could photograph each item and preserve the memories in the form of…

• A scrapbook if you are a paper crafter.
• A photo picture book which you can put together and have printed via an on-line publishers such as Blurb.
• You could make a framed collage of the items and hang it on your wall.
• Save the photos to your computer for future reference.
• Print and place the photos in a simple photo album that you can pull out of the bookshelf and look at as often as you like.

Now on with this weeks mini missions.

• Monday – Today we are looking at any area in your living room where you display this kind of thing. It may be a display cabinet, TV unit, wall shelf etc. See what you can find.
• Tuesday – Today we are looking for an item of clothing that is kept for sentimental reasons but never worn. You know the kind, old band T-shirts, sports uniforms and maybe even a wedding or formal gown. Give some thought to whether you really want this item to perish unused in your closet.
• Wednesday – The bookcase is another place that we keep sentimental items. Do you have any books that you aren’t likely to read again but keep regardless. Now is the time to reconsider your hold on these books and possibly pass them on to someone else to enjoy.
• Thursday – The most obvious place for sentimental items is the keepsake box. I know I have at least one of these maybe you do too. Now is the time to review the items in this box and make sure you really want to keep them all.
• Friday – Sometimes when items are very small we overlook them as clutter so today we are going to take a look where we store our jewellery and see if there are some “sentimental” pieces in there that we might be willing to declutter.
• Saturday – Do your photo albums or digital photo files have pictures in that are such poor quality that they are not worth keeping. Photos that are similar to other better quality ones but you leave them there just because you are too sentimental to delete or throw them away. Now is the time to take a look and see which shots really are simply wasting space. Just one album or one photo file is enough for now.
• Sunday – Your task for today is to find a sentimental item anywhere in your home that you think is clutter but that belongs to someone else in the household. Ask them if they still want this item. It is OK if they do, the challenge here is just to ask.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

These pens and just a few of the many many things that will be weeded out of my craft clutter over the months to come.

Pens

Things I am grateful for today

• Quickly finding an angle for today’s mini mission list.
• All the happy blogiversary messages I received yesterday.
• The weather finally seems to have realised it is Autumn.
• A good night sleep – No wacked out dreams to disturb me in the middle of the night
• Steve is going declutter crazy on the bookcase – Yeh!

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