“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” -John Burroughs

How many days do you start out with good intentions to do something useful with your day. A little decluttering here, some tidying up, finishing a craft project, getting some exercise etc. Unfortunately, good intentions don’t mean anything unless you actually follow through with action. Unfulfilled good intentions aren’t that different to procrastinating and neither help you feel good about yourself.

What is blocking you from following through. Some of the reasons may be…

• Inertia caused by sadness due to heartbreak or bereavement – I can relate to this one after sitting in ICU and Neurology wards for the last two weeks. It can be very hard to dust yourself off and try to think of anything else except your sorrow when your world comes crashing down around you. I found that getting busy with a task helped take my mind off my troubles for a while or at least made me feel useful. I told myself that I am not the first person to be in this position and won’t be the last, so giving up wasn’t going to make the situation better.
• Health problems that cause mobility issues – This is a very real problem for some people and it is very easy to give up trying. I think the best thing to do is to tackle the tasks that you know you are capable of and let someone else help with the physical stuff that are just to difficult. So long as you are having input rather than feeling useless it has to be good for your piece of mind.
• Low self esteem due to weight issues or feelings of failure – There are always times when we just feel down about ourselves. Times when we haven’t been as successful as we feel we should have been at one thing or another. Just remember tomorrow is another day and you can start again with a new mind set. Set the bar a little lower and once reached you can go to the next level instead of setting goals that are too lofty. Reaching your goals are possible if you don’t set yourself up for failure but making each step to great.
• Just not knowing where to start doing what it is you want to do – This is not a sign of weakness, it is just a fact that if you aren’t taught something you can’t expect to know what to do. I don’t know how to change the spark plugs in my car but if someone showed me the steps involved I would know how to go about it the next time I needed it done. It is the same with most things that you want to do. If you don’t know how, take a lesson or get some professional help then in future you will know where to begin and possibly adapt the method to suit your particular needs.
• You are focusing on the big picture instead of breaking the job down into small pieces – Sometimes it doesn’t pay to look at the enormity of the task but better to break it down into bite size chunks that you can deal with easily. Decluttering is a perfect example of a project that this method can be adapted to. You can take a look around your home and think “Oh my God! There is so much work to be done.”  Or you can think “OK, today I will clean out this room or this cupboard or even just this draw” and you will feel you have achieved your set task, made a good start and move on to the next task tomorrow.
• Just feeling to lazy to be bothered – This is OK if it is a temporary thing but if it pervades your every waking moment then you need to do some serious soul searching. If you are reading this post then I would say you are at a point where you feel you need to do something about this problem and that is good.  My advice is just get started by weaning yourself off your laziness by making an effort to do a small task each day. Slowly build that task up to a bigger and bigger undertaking and before you know it you will be proud of yourself again and feel like a worthwhile human being.

Turn your good intentions into a small deed today and see how much better it feels to follow through rather than just have the thought.

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Tool storage grid that we used for another purpose for many years but has sat in storage and in the garage for the last 13 years. The less stuff we have to store the less stuff we need to organise it with so out this goes.

5 things I am grateful for today

1. A feeling of peacefulness – although Liam may only make slow progress from now I am at peace with that because he is so much better than he was a week ago.
2. Laughter – One of the things my mother taught me to do well and it really is the best medicine.
3. Family – In times of need they sure rally around.
4. Lamb – We are having roast lamb leg and vegetables with gravy and mint sauce for dinner tonight. I will likely lick my plate. Mmmm Mmmm!
5. My new blog look – Hubby has been busy redecorating my blog and he did a good job don’t you think.

A friend and I were having one of our philosophical chats while walking a couple of weeks ago. At some point, the subject changed to the psychological benefits of my decluttering process.  Having known me before I started on this mission and being that we often discuss it she has noticed the changes it has had on me.

We discussed how my blog has added purpose to what seemed at first to be just a household chore. We talked about the side effects and lessons I have learned along the way. How I now receive so much satisfaction out of helping others with their clutter issues and that shopping no longer holds any appeal to me these days.

I have even had a positive impact on my friend, encouraging her to ease off on the spending and get her credit card debt under control.  We walk together often, which is good for our health and keeps us occupied as we all know how easy it is to get bored and restless when we have nothing worthwhile to do.

When this friend went home she happened to check out her meditation passage for the day and was surprised to find that it reflected the difference she felt she saw in me.  Here is that meditation passage for you to read and ponder…

To Believe

Having learned to transcend purely self-directed concern, fully alive people discover meaning” in their lives. This meaning is found in what Viktor Frankl calls “a specific vocation or mission in life.” It is a matter of commitment to a person or cause in which one can believe and to which one can be dedicated. This faith commitment shapes the lives of fully alive individuals making all of their efforts seem significant and worthwhile. Devotion to this life task raises them above the pettiness and paltriness that necessarily devour meaningless lives. When there is no such meaning in a human life, one is left almost entirely to the pursuit of sensations. One can only experiment, looking for new “kicks,” new ways to break the monotony and boredom of a stagnant life. A person without meaning usually gets lost in the forest of chemically induced delusions, the alcoholic fog, the prolonged orgy, the restless eagerness to scratch without even having an itch. Human nature abhors a vacuum. We must find a cause to believe in or spend the rest of our lives compensating ourselves for failure. From Fully Human, Fully Alive

I know that passage is a bit heavy but the message I took from it is this: If we have lost touch with all worthwhile focus in our lives, we will rely on external stimuli to give us the pleasure we require for happiness, such as shopping, drinking, gambling, drugs etc, to fill the emptiness. Decluttering has given me more purpose than I expected. Not only has it taught me I can be “more with less” but has rewarded me with the joy of helping others.

My friend also found this passage that she wanted me to share with you. It says a lot about the way we chose to live in the Western world….

You’ve never seen a people with as little time as Westerners. Yet we have kitchens filled with time – and work saving objects. Go to the poor Third World countries and ask, “Do you have a little time to talk?” “the rest of my life,.” they’ll say and sit down and share themselves with you for the afternoon.

We should have more time than anybody, but we don’t have any time at all. We’ve defined freedom falsely as an outer thing, in terms of time, space and options. Letting Go – The spirituality of subtraction.

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The photo on the left shows the declutter item for today while on the right is the coffee plunger hybrid I made from the combined unbroken parts of the two pots. One pot had a broken glass carafe while the plunger had broken in the other. A lot of good the Bonjour brand pot with the unbreakable carafe was when its plunger only lasted a couple of months.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Finding time to do some decluttering and organising.
2. Giants won the world series – That is a bit of news Liam is really going to enjoy.
3. A nice night out last night with my old work friends.
4. Having a good laugh with Liam today even though I shouldn’t have been laughing because he was misbehaving but I couldn’t help myself. It is the first time he has smiled and laughed with us since the accident so I just let go and enjoyed it.
5. Making progress with decluttering the fridge and pantry.

A guest post by Cindy Bogard

Darling you got to let me know
Should I stay or should I go?
If you say that you are mine
I’ll be here ’til the end of time
So you got to let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

The Clash

Should it stay or should it go? Who hasn’t asked that during their decluttering efforts? One things I think we need to keep in mind while decluttering is the future usefulness of an item. Now I’m not trying to enable those who say, “Perhaps I can use it later…My sister’s husband’s next-door neighbor might want it … You just never know ….” I’m talking about hanging onto things, possibly things you haven’t used in a while, if you can clearly identify a time when you anticipate using them and if you can store them without inconvenience.

In an earlier post, Colleen identified one of these circumstances in her life. In anticipation of her daughter moving out of the house, Colleen had saved housewares she no longer needed to help her daughter set up he first household. Yes, the items were stacking up (in boxes in the garage, as I recall), but they had a purpose, just not quite yet.

Recently I’ve tangled with a few of these objects. The closet in the girls’ bathroom is a storage closet. One shelf is for their towels, and the rest is general household storage, including our soft camping equipment (sleeping bags, air mattresses).

Dan and I talked about everything I thought was extra, and he agreed, it should all go. It was me who hesitated when the time actually came. First I pulled down all the camping equipment. Remember, this is for 4 people: 4 sleeping bags, 4 air mattresses, 2 sleeping pads, 2 tents (and neither is the big family tent that we use when we camp). Hmmm, a bit overstocked, and I must tell you, I was shocked to find two tents. One was my two-person tent from before Dan and I were married (unused for the past 12 years), and the other one was a mystery to me … even to Dan! I immediately thought that I should get rid of both tents and the two extra sleeping pads, although I really wanted to hang onto my tent, which was quite expensive and very nice, almost sentimental clutter, I think you could say. But, more than what you need is clutter, right? So out it should all go.

I sure was grateful that stuff was still in the house when I got an email about a week later letting me know that it was time for Ranch Romp, a weekend camping trip of the 5^th and 6^th grades. The teachers needed two-person tents, and since the girls would be carrying in their gear, sleeping pads rather than air mattresses. In addition, since Clara has diabetes, I would come out to the camp in the evening and spend the night to monitor Clara’s overnight sugars. Suddenly, I needed a two-person tent and two sleeping pads.

Clara and I checked all the gear: The mystery tent was missing stakes. The remaining tent and the two sleeping pads were fully functional, despite age, probably because they are high quality goods and stored in the house, rather than the hot garage or attic.

Ranch Romp was a great success, and I continued musing over these extra camping items. “Should I stay or should I go?” It occurred to me that since my family goes camping twice a year with a group of five other families, and the oldest girls are now approaching 11, they would probably love to have a tent all to themselves soon. Sure, it’s not necessary, but it’s fun and, for them, another step toward independence. I decided that since Clara will go on Ranch Romp one more time and then Audra will go twice, the extra gear is well worth keeping. Five years ago, maybe not, but I hung onto it long enough (before I knew better, of course), and now I can see a need for it. (Except the mystery tent. Out it goes.)

If I didn’t have these things, would I have been heartbroken when Ranch Romp came around? No, other parents or the school could provide the tents, and Clara and I could have slept without sleeping pads, but I did have them. For now, I see the future usefulness of these items, even though they had been unused for a decade. All this camping equipment is stored on just one shelf, and it’s not creating clutter, preventing me from accessing other items, or falling on my head when I open the door.

I think if you’re in a toss-up about something ask yourself (and answer honestly) “Even though I haven’t used this in the past decade, can I identify a specific time in the future when I will use this again?” If you’re still stymied, move onto other, move obvious choices. You can always swing back around later, and maybe you’ll realize that what seemed like a “Should I stay?” is really a “Should I go?” Don’t worry overly about making a wrong choice; although The Clash sings “If you say that you are mine / I’ll be here ’til the end of time,” your stuff doesn’t need to be.

Decluttered from Cindy’s today: an ice cream ball and rock salt, donated to a neighbor.

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These candles are a little too ugly now to put out on display and they were just hiding away in a cupboard so they can go

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. That Liam had a good morning even if doing graffiti on his bed sheets is a little naughty. It was his friends that gave him the marking pen not me.
2. All the support of family, fellow bloggers, my reader friends, our family friends, strangers and anyone who has sent kind words and messages of support and prayers.
3. That Rachel in bed 10 showed signs of awaking from her sleep today after two weeks. It was wonderful to see the happiness on the faces of her family and friends.
4. Liam’s wonderful friends who come to see him as often as they can and treat him like nothing has happened. Liam is always in a better frame of mind when they are around.
5. That my husband has a month off work so we can get through this together.

We stayed at a very eco-friendly hostel in Rome called The Beehive. They only wash towels and sheets every three days if you are staying four days or more. They encourage you to turn off all electricity in your rooms when you are out. They have a little cafe that provides organic home made snacks and breakfast. And they have a community area where you can access the Internet on the computer provided and there are free magazines to read and a small collection on books (travel and otherwise) that have been shared by passing travellers who have no use for them anymore. There is also a recycling collection area for all guests to use for responsible disposal of plastic, paper and glass.

Among the magazines was a great little publication from Canada called Ode Magazine (for intelligent optimists). You can check it out on line @ www.odemagazine.com. There was one particular article that caught my eye about the different ways our brains work. The article is called Your Brain is a Rainforest and I would love you all to read it. This article has nothing to do with cluttering but as our brains’ “wiring” has a lot to do with our individual behaviour maybe there is a connection there for you to find for yourself. Too often people feel alienated just because they don’t fit into society’s general rule of what makes a person “valuable”. We are all special in our own way and we should embrace that and find our own purpose in life that is fulfilling for us. Whether this choice makes us rich or not should not be the motivation, happiness and satisfaction should be the ultimate goal. In fact I believe that there should be a little more equality in what society deems is the monetary value of different occupations but that is just my opinion.

Just to prove that I practise what I preach I am handing in my resignation at my current job and I am going to spend some time experimenting with options so I can hopefully find what I want to do when I grow up. It is never too late to learn, thank goodness, because I have certainly left it late enough. Now that I have learnt not to waste money on unnecessary items I can afford to sacrifice my small wage in the pursuit of happiness.

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I had all good intentions to use these pastry horns when I bought them but to be honest I have never used them so that one more thing for the donation box.

5 Things I am Grateful for Today

1. My Dyson vacuum cleaner – the house needed a good once over today and having a good vacuum cleaner sure makes that easy work.
2. Micro-fibre cloths – I don’t know how anyone cleans without these things.
3. Sleeping in – I slept until 8:30 today so I am feeling much brighter than I have the last two days.
4. Racial Diversity – I am making Red Thai Curry for dinner tonight. Wouldn’t life be boring without great food from different cultures.
5. Hot showers – can you just imagine what it was like before indoor plumbing and hot water systems were invented. It doesn’t even bare thinking about.

For the last 207 days finding things to declutter has been a reasonably simple task due to the sheer volume of stuff that needed to go. Now it is time to tackle the tricky stuff. The stuff that so far I have avoided simply because I didn’t want to make the hard decisions.

Things like…

• Those craft items that I keep telling myself I will eventually use one day but after years that day has never arrived.
• Some of the sentimental items that deep down I know are just clutter that no one but me would ever want.
• Items that I know I don’t want but have been struggling whether I should give away or sell.
• Even some items I should sell on ebay but am getting a little tired of dealing with pricing, photographing, describing, watching, mailing and just taking the gamble as to whether they will sell or not.

You know, I feel better just having admitted these things to myself and I am now eager to get started. I am tired of this stuff sitting around taunting me with the guilt of having wasted the money on it in the first place. Other stuff that  I must admit I have been too lazy to deal with so far. Realising that I can risk a few eBay insertion fees because we have done well enough on eBay so far it won’t matter if the odd thing doesn’t sell.

It is amazing how even though I declutter and write about decluttering every day I can still manage to forget the rules. Still manage to fall into the psychological pitfalls that I advise everyone else to be wary of. Well luckily I caught myself before I was too far gone. Maybe now I am getting a little melodramatic but you get the idea sometimes a person needs to stop and take a good look around them and at themselves and get back on track.

If you are off track with your decluttering stop and think what is worse, the task at hand or the bad feelings generated day in and day out by being surrounded by the clutter. Do yourself a favour just get rid of it.

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On refection maybe I should have kept this dream catcher and hung it over my bed. Maybe it would have done it’s job of filtering out the bad dreams and only letting the good ones through like the dream of a clutter free home.

I don’t know if I am interpreting “Inner Voice” the wrong way but I don’t happen to agree that you should always listen to it like people often advise. I think of “Inner Voice” as that niggling little feeling inside that makes you feel cautious when faced with certain situations that you aren’t to sure about.

In my experience that little voice often tells lies and undermines your common sense. I have suffered from depression on and off during my life and I can tell you for sure that that little voice hasn’t helped during those periods. It has come right to the forefront causing me a whole lot of unnecessary grief that I definitely shouldn’t have listened to.

Would you tell a person suffering from  schizophrenia to listen to their “Inner Voice”? I think not. Even if I have got the “Inner Voice” confused with something else, who is to say which feeling is which. I am also sure that most people inflicted with a hoarding disorder are listening to what they think is their inner voice telling them to keep useless things because they many be important some day.

My point here is that you should stop and question that thing that you think is your inner voice at least in the following situations…

• When it tells you to buy that cute sweater because it will make you feel better when you are having a bad day. In a week or two that sweater will just be languishing in the back of your closet with ten of it’s other “bad day’ friends making you feel guilty for wasting your money on it.
• When it tells you that you should keep all your fat/skinny clothes because you may need them one day. These clothes make you feel bad if they are skinny clothes and undermine your new healthy way of life if they are your fat clothes.
• When it tells you to dwell on your mistakes from the past instead of just learning from them and moving on.
• When it tells you to worry about things that haven’t happened yet and probably won’t. (I have spent a good bit of my life worrying about things that never happened.)
• When it tells you you should keep clutter just in case you may need it one day. Oh how busy that little voice can be worrying people into hoarding all sorts of useful stuff that would be better of in the hands of people how actually will use them NOW!
• When it tells you you have to hang on to great-granddads old mahogany dining table because so and so (usually someone who didn’t want it cluttering up their house) will be so disappointed it you don’t. If it is a family heirloom there is probably some other person in the family happy to take it off your hands. Even if it is valuable that value is no use to you if you aren’t “allowed” to sell it.

Then again maybe I have just haven’t dug deep enough and have all this time been listening to some bad shallow voice. Kind of like in cartoons where there is an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Still when you can’t see which costume they are wearing it is hard to tell the difference.

I am sure you can come up with more of your own examples of when that inner voice has mislead you into doing things that weren’t all that advisable in hindsight. Please leave me a comment with some of your own personal examples I would love to hear from you.

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A little voice said “keep these computer parts they will come in useful one day”. In actual fact all they became was clutter for a long time and now they have been donated to charity and hopefully someone else is finding them useful again now.

Due to all I have learned since starting my 365lessthings resolution where I have taken a relaxed approach to a job that could otherwise be quite unpleasant I am really starting to mellow and learn to savour the good feelings evoked during the process rather than just being satisfied when I am done. Through links to minimalism and inspirational web sites that I have discovered along the way I am learning to live in the moment and enjoy the process.

If you approach an event with dread, determined that you will not get any enjoyment out of it, chances are it is going to live up to all your expectations. If you resign yourself to the fact that an event may not be your favourite way to spend your time but are determined to make the most of the situation there is a chance you may be pleasantly surprised.

For example, I set aside one day a week to do the bulk of my housecleaning, dusting, vacuuming, toilets, basins, showers etc. Every week I dread this day simply because it is what it is, a crappy job but someone has to do it. I have taken this attitude for the last 20 years which is quite pointless because I love the end result. I like the feel of the house being clean and tidy around me but I could not stop thinking this way until now.

Since I have learned to savour the moment my attitude to doing my housework is changing dramatically.  I find myself feeling the atmosphere clearing while I vacuum the floor as if the the vacuum cleaner is filtering the air as I work. I am noticing how my micro-fibre cloths start to glide more smoothly over the surfaces as they meet less resistance as the grime is wiped away. I delight in knowing that the freshness is returning as the clothes tumble around in the washing machine.

Strangely enough these kinds of feeling were there from the beginning when it came to my decluttering project simply because I was determined from the get go to take a calm and steady approach. I receive so much satisfaction from knowing that with each effort I make, my home is getting more clear and efficient. There is another level of satisfaction knowing that most of the items I no longer have use for found new purpose for someone else.

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I had procrastinated for months over buying new bed linen. The old down comforter had seen better days  and the cover was too dark for our now tiny bedroom.  I finally made a decision but  now these cushions no longer match and I am sick of putting them on and taking them off the bed anyway so off they go to Lifeline.

Procrastination is a subject I have touched on probably more than once already as on Day 100 Procrastination-Clutter of the mind. It is a subject worth revisiting on a regular basis because it is a road block that often holds people back from getting things done.

One of the biggest problems with procrastination is that you feel like you have put a lot of effort into tackling a job when in actual fact all you have done in exhaust yourself with the mental stain of over thinking the situation and not actually physically doing anything about it.

It is a similar problem to taking a day out occasionally to just chill out and relax and then spend most of the day feeling guilty because you have indulged yourself and not done anything useful with your time. The day ends and you feel mentally drained from trying to justify the break you deserved and don’t feel like you have taken a day off at all.

Nothing crazy about either of these situations is there????

My solution to the procrastination problem is just get up and start doing something, anything about it.  For example there seems to be a lot of people with messy basements on the blogs I read. These basements seem to be cluttered with all kinds of things some being harder to decide about than others. To get moving I suggest just start on the easiest things and work your way along hopefully inspiration will strike as you progress and the job will start to flow and the next thing you know the job is done and you will feel so much better.

Break up the big task into smaller tasks for example there may be a pile of old clothes to go through in one corner, some boxes of paperwork in another, old toys the kids no longer use in another etc… tackle one area at a time and don’t think about it as one big tasks but a bunch of smaller tasks that aren’t so difficult. I like to leave the hardest task until last so I feel like I am making quick progress which raises my spirits and keeps me going.

And keeping in mind my 365lessthings approach you don’t have tackle the whole job in one go just do one task a day if that is all you feel up to. Each time you go back to the job it will be a bit smaller than the last and won’t seem so daunting. If your laundry is down in the basement you could choose an item to get rid of every time you go down to take care of a load of washing and eventually there will be nothing left.

The physical effort of getting the job done is much better for you than the metal stress of doing nothing about it. Just consider it one more day that you feel justified about not going to the gym. Exercise is exercise no matter what form it comes in.

As for my second problem, not being able to relax without feeling guilty about it, I have absolutely no expertise in this area so if you know the solution I would be glad to take your advice.

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Pair of Jeans sold on eBay for $15.50

I often check the discussions taking place on Unclutter Forums and sometimes even start a new topic myself. Recently I began a topic called The Neil Armstrong Approach to Uncluttering. This topic has attracted a reasonable amount of interest mostly due to the curiosity about the title but one comment really struck a cord with me.

Pol wrote – I’ve been decluttering regularly and it simply gets easier and easier the more I do it! “Sentimental” clutter has always been the worst with me…    Each small step has opened my eyes to the damage I was causing myself, the stuff owned me.

Those four little words “the stuff owned me” really was an AH HA moment for me. This is often the case with a lot of the clutter we own. We feel tied to it for one reason or another like Pol writes and it gets to the stage where you don’t even really care for the stuff any more and it is virtually owning us instead of the other way around.

I personally find this situation appalling and refuse to be dictated to by clutter and I will think of those four words every time I come across one of those clutter items that for one stupid reason or another I find hard to part with and my shear stubbornness and determination will assist me to make a rational decision as to whether it makes sense to keep this item or not.

Thanks Pol I am most grateful for your words of wisdom.

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I read forums and posts on other blogs and I can’t help but think that people put themselves under too much pressure when it comes to decluttering. Below are a few suggestions I have to help release that pressure…

• The clutter didn’t appear overnight so don’t expect it to disappear overnight.
• Don’t look at the big picture it’s too scary sometimes.
• Pace yourself, there is no hurry.
• Don’t set a deadline.
• Save the hard to decide items until last. I find the further I get into this the more ruthless I become.
• Be rational, way up the pros and cons when it comes to what stays and what goes.
• One step at a time, whether that is one room one cupboard, one drawer or one item just so long as it is something at a pace you can handle.
• Give yourself a mental pat on the back with every item you send on it’s way.
• Stay focused on what you have achieved not the size of the task ahead.

One thing you must remember is to not replace the items you are getting rid of with some other thing that will soon become tomorrows clutter making your efforts useless because you are taking one step forward two steps back.

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