After 25 months of decluttering it is hard to believe that there are still some things that I have too many off. It’s OK though because we are still happily working away at the excess one day at a time. I will however share with you below a list of some of those items. I will also explain the excess and why they are still here even though I am aware of them.

• Bath towels ~ I have weeded out the tatty ones and donated the extreme excess but the remaining ones will be subject to natural progression decluttering. That is, I will not replace them once they wear out. Sometimes it is just insane to declutter items that are perfectly good and useful to you that will cost money to replace sometime not too far into the future.
• Keepsakes ~ Periodically both my husband and I sort through these and weed out a few more items. This is an area I don’t like to be too hasty with. I consult the children and my husband about the items I am decluttering because this is a communal collection of our history. Happily there is a lot less of it now than there was when we started our declutter journey. And there will be even less by the time we reach our final decluttered destination.
• Souvenirs ~ For the most part these aren’t mine so it goes to my husband to do most of the decluttering in this area. Slowly but surely he is letting go of more and more of it. That makes me a very happy lady because I am the one who dusts the items that are out on display. My son has his own collection but like hubby he also has the odd impromptu cull.
• Kitchen items ~ This area of my home has been continually picked over throughout the last 25 months. As a result there is far less than there was when we began. Much of what is excess is only there because we use a dishwasher which, depending on the daily menu, can swallow up several of an particular item before it is full and warrants turning on. There are some items that I will give to my son when he leaves home and if he doesn’t need them they will be donated to charity.
• Socks ~ I started out with quite a large collection of socks. Last year I paid close attention to what I was using during the cooler months. Once it became clear which ones weren’t being used I rounded them up and donated them to the thrift store. A few other pairs succumbed to natural progression decluttering which is pretty much what is planned for the remainder.
• Clothing ~ This is an interesting area for me because over the last two years my circumstances have changed due to quitting my job. I am now home most of the time and don’t see that situation changing any time soon. Therefore last year I donated several of my work outfits as I noticed that there is always a good supply of replacements at the thrift store should I choose to reverse my current employment status. Several everyday outfits have, like my socks, became shabby and old and were thrown out but some of those required replacing. There are still a number of items that are also about to reach the point of becoming rags and will soon depart my wardrobe and won’t be replaced. I am however not content with my fashion choices but am undecided about what to do about that so I will continue to deploy the backward facing hanger tactic each change of season until I discover what the solution is.
• Craft supplies ~ Anyone who has read my blog posts for a while knows how overstocked I was with this category before my 365 less things challenge began. Well I have a whole lot less now than there was at the beginning due to selling and donating much of it. But there is however still I lot more than I would like and I am not using it up quick enough. This area will be subject to continuous decluttering for some time yet. I am happy to let go of more as I feel ready.
• Jewellery ~ Although I have been through my jewellery box may times and have let go of several items I know that there are still things in there that I am quite ready to part with. The only thing holding me back is that I feel inclined to try to sell them and just can’t be bothered with that rigmarole right now. They take up so little space that I feel no urgency to deal with them. Perhaps soon.
• Furniture ~ There are a couple of furniture items taking a vacation from the house in the garage at the moment. They have been in constant use over the years but now I think with the reduction of other items they are no longer required. I will make a final decision on them soon. The most likely outcome is that I will send them on their way.

So no matter whether it is by natural progression or through some effort by me the plan is to continue to reduce. Meanwhile there seems to still be plenty of other odds and ends heading out the door. Do you still have something that you feel you have too many of and what do you plan to do about it?

Today’s Declutter Item

Speaking of craft supplies here are some more that have been used up to make this years birthday cards for the women in my life. Already several have headed out the door to their respective recipients as the first couple of months of the year are busy with birthdays in our family.

More craft supplies converted to this years birthday cards

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Mango and macadamia ice-cream. A flavour combination made in heaven I believe. Cool, refreshing and crunchy all rolls into one. M Mmmmmm!

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

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

I’m sure that some of you have all your recipes on-line and (could it be?) don’t have a cookbook of any sort in your house. Most of you, I know, have from some to many cookbooks plus a personal recipe file or binder. As I wrote last week, I have a couple of cookbooks, and I have a rather large recipe binder, which I use almost exclusively.

My binder is not a thing of beauty; however, it suits me perfectly. I made it from a 4″ binder, plastic sleeves, dividers, and colored paper, all of which I had in our office supply cupboard. My divisions are

1. Poultry
   

   My Recipe File

2. Beef
3. Pork
4. Vegetarian Entrees
5. Fish
6. Soup
7. Pizza, Tacos, Sandwiches
8. Hot Pasta
9. Cold Pasta, Salads
10. Veggie Sides, Grains, Beans
11. Breakfast
12. Cookies
13. Other Desserts
14. Appetizers, Sauces, Beverages

The recipes I have tried and want to make again are at the front of each section. Recipes I hope to make are stored behind these. I try to be brutal in deciding if a recipe is worthy of being added to the book. I hope to make any recipe that I clip from a magazine or newspaper within the next month, preferably within the next week; otherwise, it’s in danger of becoming aspirational clutter. In addition, I try to be honest about what I really will make. I am a successful and functional family cook. I am not a gourmand (or as we like to call them in the United States, I am not a “foodie.”)  While Chicken with Garbonzo Beans and Fennel may sound delightful, the truth is that in the last 48 years, I have never to my knowledge eaten fennel, and I am not likely to start now. To store the recipe would be to add aspirational clutter to my cookbook.

I use the on-line source allrecipes.com for the majority of my explorations into new recipes. I occasionally see a recipe on-line that I’d like to make and store it in the “recipe box” that All Recipes provides, but most of the time I make the recipe by reading it right off the computer. If I like it, it gets printed and stored in the binder. If not, I just shut down the computer.

It’s easy to pull recipes out of the newspaper and magazines, especially if you have a subscription to a cooking magazine such as Vegetarian Times or Cooking Light. Try to be realistic. Clipping more recipes that you can or will ever make adds clutter to your life and makes it harder, not easier, to make decisions about what to have for dinner. Most of us only make a handful of recipes over and over again. That’s okay. And if the occasion ever arises where you really are going to make Lobster Nurenberg or Châteaubriand, there are plenty of on-line guides, as well as the library, to help you get that special meal just right.

In addition, to my recipe binder, I have a separate list of a few meals that I can pull together very quickly, and I keep all the ingredients for these dishes on hand at all times. Being prepared in this way prevents a mad rush to the store or the take-away place when my afternoon doesn’t seem to allow for cooking (or when I just can’t get off my hind end). These foods are:

1.  I have a package of cooked chicken that has been diced or shredded in the freezer, as well as meal-size packages of ham. I also have a wide variety of frozen vegetables.
2.  Six can soup. I use frozen chicken, rather than canned, and add cumin and oregano to this basic recipe.
3. Tortillas with canned beans, cheese, and the frozen chicken.
4. Red beans and rice mix from the pantry cooked with sausage links from the freezer.
5. Canned chili accompanied by cornbread from a mix
6. Spaghetti Carbonara
7. Chicken a la King

Paper clutter is one that really bogs people down, and dealing with a bunch of unnecessary paper clutter at the same time that you’re trying to make a meal is just unnecessary. I challenge you to go to your recipe box right now and recycle 10 recipes that you know you’re never going to make. It’s okay. Let them go. There are millions and millions of delicious foods in this world. Ten recipes fewer aren’t going to keep you from a delicious life, but they could keep you from finding that recipe that you really do want.

Today’s Declutter Item

One of these cables belongs to something we don’t even own any more and the other has a US plug. So neither are of much use to us. These two will go in the trash as I think they will be of very limited demand or use here in Australia.

Unnecessary Power Cables

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Correct postage calculations on ebay sales. I love to go to the post office to mail off completed ebay actions and find the postage is exactly what I am expecting. Couple that with the fact that more stuff has left my house and I am a very happy lady.

“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

Household Tiny Stuff

I received the following comment from Coonie on Tuesday and since this is the theme for this week’s mini missions I thought I should slip in a post about it before the week is up.

Coonie’s Comment

Hello! “Tiny stuff de-cluttering” is just what I needed. I am very organized and reduce clutter all the time, but “tiny” things elude me! All my tiny things are labeled and in containers (lol) I would love it if you could focus on this a while…name all the tiny things and what do you ask/tell yourself to reduce “the stash.” Help me know how many is too many and why not keep and store them if I have the space? I think my view definitely comes from raised in scarcity—but things aren’t scarce now. Thanks for your blog.

Firstly Coonie, well done containerising and labelling your tiny things. Working in the thrift store we often receive donations of kids games many of which have all parts missing. These toys are next to useless to us in this condition. My kids toys never had parts missing because all the small pieces were kept in ziplock bags or plastic containers and the kids were taught to take care of them.

As for “why not keep and store them if I have the space?” I would suggest that if your tiny stuff is of no consequence to you clutter wise then leave it well enough alone. Personally though I find every inch of ground gamed from something that isn’t being used or is overstocked in my home is a small victory in the war on clutter. Back on May 21st last year I wrote a Simple Saturday post about my stationery drawer declutter which just goes to prove how little things can add up to a lot of wasted space. When writing that post I was attempting to reduce yet again the amount of stuff cluttering up my craft space. And now after several more sessions of removing tiny items, small items and some bigger stuff from that area I have managed to declutter two sets of plastic drawers which took up about five square feet of space.

Tiny stuff tends to come in four categories. 1. Stuff that your actually use but is a little overstocked and can be used up in a reasonable amount of time if you put your mind to it. For example travel size shampoo, motel soaps etc. 2. Stuff that is rarely used but so numerous that it would take years to use up. Like the hundred or more paperclips, thumb tacks and rubber bands I decluttered last year. 3. Items that grown in number due to replacing them because you couldn’t find them when you needed them, such as Allen keys, and nail clippers. And 4. Items that you just keep buying more of because you want to. Like little trinkets, jewellery, fashion accessories etc

My guide when it comes to tiny stuff is if you aren’t using it it’s clutter. For example if you have a box of 100 paperclips and you use about six in a year then keep about a dozen (and that is probably too many) and get rid of the rest. The same goes for most of the little things you will find on the list below. Observe for a while how often you use these things and adjust how many you have in proportion to how many you will use over perhaps one year. As for the small items that accumulate due to being misplaced the best method to keep track of them is to always put them back in the same place. I know that rule sounds fundamental but it isn’t a rule always observed. Once you have this down pat you can safely declutter the excess. As for the “I just want them” things, declutter the ones you no long want or are useless due to damage on a regular basis. If you still want them they aren’t clutter.

Don’t buy tiny items in bulk just because it appears to make economic sense unless you share the cost and the quantity with a friend or family member. Such as make-up sponges, Post-it note pads, boxes of staples, pens etc. If the shared quantity is still too many give the rest away to other loved ones. It is so tempting to buy 1000 of something when it only cost one and a half times as much as 100 but then you are stuck with them for what seems like an eternity and they take up four times as much space as the smaller quantity would have. Keep in mind some items perish and become useless if left unused for an extended period of time.

Tiny Things

• Jewellery ~ Necklaces, earrings, brooches, pins, tie pins, cufflinks, bracelets, bangles, watches…
• Stationery ~ pens, pencils, markers, paperclips, rubber bands, post-it notes pads, bookmarks…
• Toileties ~ Samples, travel size, make-up items, nail clippers, nail files, cotton balls, make-up sponges…
• Hardware ~ Nails, screws, nuts, bolts, rivets, washers, picture hooks, Allen keys…
• Kitchenware ~ corn holders, skewers, muffin/cupcake papers, cutlery, twist ties…
• Sewing equipment ~ Pins, needles, buttons, clips, cotton reals, machine bobbins, safety pins…
• Household items other ~ Keys, key rings, zip ties, …
• Craft ~ Beads, findings, embellishments, stamps, buttons, tacks, picture clippings, off cuts of wood and paper…

Ways to dispose of

• Jewellery ~ Give to friends or loved ones, donate or sell, Freecycle.
• Stationary ~ Donate to a local school, thrift shop or take into your work place to be used up.
• Toiletries ~ Most of these can be used up and not repurchased. Make-up should be thrown away if out of date. I would not advise giving it to someone else. Excess clippers, files and applicators could be shared among friends, preferably unused.
• Hardware ~ Donate, offer to a neighbour, friend or family member, give to your handman the next time he calls to repair something, Freecycle in batches.
• Kitchenware ~ Donate, offer to friends or family, freecycle, sell on ebay if worth the effort.
• Sewing equipment ~ Put together in a kit and donate to the thrift store or to your local highschool or a local craft group.
• Household items ~ In the case of old keys they can probably be recycled. Another useful stuff could be donated or Freecycled.
• Craft Items ~ Schools, craft groups, thrift store, local craft shop who runs classes, sell on ebay.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is an example of decluttering little things. It may not look like much but just because it isn’t being used by us doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be useful to someone else. For every little thing hiding away in your home unused someone else is having to buy new. Send them out there where they can be useful. And all the little things add up to a much bigger waste of space in your home than you would think.

Decluttering Little Things

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Getting rid of a batch if things to the thrift store and the craft store up the street. It is one thing to decide and divide but the clutter disappearing act is the best part. “Hey Presto!”

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

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

I think I deserve a break during the holiday season and if I don’t I am having one anyway. So for your entertainment, I have set up five posts for this week with articles from the archives. That is I am going to share with you some old post that you may not have seen for some time that you might find interesting and helpful all over again while I take my break.

I received some unexpected help this week with choosing which articles to use from Lena who has been reading through the archives since she discovered my blog not so long ago. Got to love her dedication, especially since it has assisted me to be lazy for a week. Thanks Lena your timing was perfect.

One more thing. I may or may not be replying to comments it just depends on whether I have the time. A break is meant to be a break after all. I am sure though that I will not be able to resist checking what you folks are up to while I am not looking. Please feel free to chat among yourselves if I am not here. Equally please take a break from me and my incessant declutter nagger for the week yourselves. I will not feel deserted if you don’t drop by. So without further adieu here is the first of this weeks archive posts…

Day 250 ~ Reducing your Travel Clutter

A guest post by my husband

You’ll never meet a traveller who, after five trips, brags: “Every year I pack heavier.” ~ Rick Steves – Travel Writer

These words echo in my head every time I pack for trip, whether business or pleasure, reducing the amount of stuff I carry always makes for a more enjoyable time. Whenever I travel with colleagues, they are amazed by my small bag and unable to imagine how they could do it. Packing light is easier than they think and anyone can reduce their luggage to a manageable size with some planning and preparation.

Colleen and I are committed to only take as much stuff as can be carried onto the flight; a 9″ x 22″ x 14″ bag weighing no more than 7 Kilos (15 lbs) plus a smaller bag for personal items like a camera. We use a convertible backpack/suitcase with zip-away shoulder straps that is lighter than your average roller bag, and easy to tote across town to our hotel. How do we do it? Well, my bag contains the following items:

• 

  Rick Steves ~ Classic Back Door Bag

  2 collared shirts

• 2 t-shirts
• 1 pair of pants
• 1 pair of shorts/swimmers
• 4 sets of underwear
• 4 pair of socks
• 1 jacket
• Vibram Five Fingers
• small toiletries kit
• first aid kit
• 1 small towel
• journal/pens
• sewing kit
• guide book/maps
• phrase book (if needed)

In my camera bag:

• DSLR plus 28-135mm zoom
• 50mm lens
• iPod Touch
• battery charger
• spare battery/compact flash drives
• Archos 604WIFI (used for photo storage and charging the iPod)

I used to carry a laptop but an iPod touch provides me all the computing power I need except for an ability to upload photos from my camera so I carry the Archos 604 *. Despite carrying two devices, I still save more than half the weight of your average 12-13 inch laptop or netbook.

The main advantage of this small uncluttered travel bag is mobility. While most people are waiting for their bags, we are heading to the hotel. We can easily change planes, trains or buses when a delay occurs because everything is with us. Sure we have to do some washing along the way but it is often no more expensive to use a fluff and fold service than to do the laundry yourself. We also use lightweight wash and wear clothes that can be washed in a sink if necessary, and air dried over night.

Virtually nothing in our bag is there because we might need it, we will use every item continuously throughout our travels and when those one-off occasions arise we just buy what we need at that time. Plan for the best and be prepared to spend a little money if needed, why ruin a vacation lugging a huge bag of stuff you never use to save a few dollars. Travelling light is an awakening that can open your eyes to how little you need in your life, try it on your next vacation.

For those who cannot imagine travelling with one small bag, check out Rolf Potts’ No Baggage trip.

* We no longer carry the Archos 604 as we now have two 8gig Compact Flash cards which hold and awful lot of photos, so there is no need to upload photos as we go.

Today’s Declutter Item

Somethings accumulate and because you use them all the time you don’t think to deduce the number you have. These two trays are just that sort of clutter item. Yes they get used but while they are used two others remain idle. They can’t all fit in the oven at once so there is no need to keep them all. One was so old and worn that I sent it to the recycling while the other is off to the thrift shop.

Two Baking Pans

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

I love New year’s resolutions, don’t you? Ok, most people really don’t love them, but I do. Because of them, I have (finally!) learned how to use chopsticks, and I (finally!) had a charity party that I’d been intending to have for 4 or 5 years.

And I have one for you this year: Less trash.

It makes me crazy to drive through my neighborhood and see people’s trash cans literally bursting out the top with trash. The City of Austin provides a choice of 3 cart sizes: 32 gallons, 64 gallons, and 96 gallons; each is more expensive than the size before it, although even the largest can is only $30 a month. Trash pick up is weekly. Most people have the middle size can. This is the one I often see stuffed to the top and more.

(For full disclosure: Everyone also has a 96 gallon recycling bin, which is picked up every two weeks. Any amount of yard waste can be put out weekly as long as it is in large paper sacks or trash cans that can be dumped. Yard waste may not be set out in plastic bags. The city has a fantastic program for recycling solid sewage waste and yard trimmings to produce compost, which is used at city-own buildings and parks and is also sold to the public.)

My family of four people and five animals produces a single bag of trash a week. One. Even when the children were little and wore disposable diapers, we only had two bags of trash a week.

How do we do this when others are brimming over? Frankly, I often ask myself how they could possibly have that much trash. It seems impossible to me, although obviously it’s not.

Here’s how I mange it: a place for everything and everything in its place.

I have a trash can in the kitchen, plus a little one in Dan’s office, each girls’ room, and in all four bathrooms. Except for the kitchen trash, the other ones only need to be emptied once a month or so. I have two recycling bins in the kitchen, one in Dan’s office, and one at the end of the hallway by all our bedrooms. I have a tiny compost bucket in the kitchen. I have a plastic bag recycling area in the pantry; metal recycling tub (small) under the kitchen sink; and a box for Styrofoam in the garage.

Yes, that’s a lot of containers, and yes, I do live in a fairly large house, but I did the same when I lived in smaller places.

All the food cans and bottles go into one of the bins in the kitchen. Paper recycling goes into the bin in the office. The basket at the end of the hall is for miscellaneous recycling generated in the bathrooms and bedrooms. The metal bin under the sink is for aluminum foil or any recyclable but non-can metal. Food scraps are dealt with in a number of ways: the compost bin is that last option. I feed leftovers from our plate to the dogs. The guinea pig gets vegetable and fruit trimmings. Fruit that the guinea pig doesn’t eat goes outside to feed the squirrels. (My 9 year old especially loves squirrels, so ours are well cared for.) In the end, only things like egg shells, banana peels, and tea bags end up in the compost bin. Even the cats’ litter is composted: I buy compressed pine pellets for their box and put the used litter in with the yard waste when it needs to be emptied. Since I know this waste will be mixed with sewage and yard trimmings, I don’t worry that there may be some cat feces remaining. The guinea pig’s pine shavings are dumped directly into the garden as mulch.

In addition, things you’re decluttering need a place to go so that they launch into their new life in the best way possible – a gift to a friend, a trip to the thrift store, sold on Ebay. One of the advantages of thing-a-day decluttering is that you have time to make wise choices. Reader Annabelle just packed up from Germany to come back to the US and said it was a breeze due to decluttering in advance, even though the movers came early. Like her, you don’t want to be in a panic at the last minute. That’s when waste occurs.

And remember, I’ve only talked about ways of diminimishing your trash by recycling. There’s a whole other side to this coin: Bringing less into your home. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

With anything you want to succeed with, you have to 1) have a plan and 2) a way of executing that plan. If you don’t have a convenient place to put your recycling, then it won’t get recycled. If you’ve got some recycling that has to be taken to the recycling center and can’t be put in your curb-side bin, then you need a place to store it. This is my New Year’s challenge to you: Can you cut down on your trash by 1/3? By 1/2? I bet you can. Let’s all take a deep breath and say our 2012 mantra together: Less.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is a classic example of if you keep stretchy things for too long unused they will perish. This piece of elastic tubing was something I had to exercise with when I was having back spasms which in turned caused me neck problems. Fortunately I haven’t suffered from that problem for some time now so it is now only good for the trash.

Elastic tubing for physiotherapy

Something I Am Grateful For Today

The pest man has been, the car is serviced, dinner dates are sorted, towels are washed. Things are coming together nicely around here. Hopefully that means that by Sunday all I will have to do is cook, eat, drink and be merry.

“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

1. If you feel inclined to minimise holiday/Christmas décor, declutter to a point where you are comfortable with the quantity, the effort involved and the storage space required after the event.
2. Try to get as many people on board with the no gift giving rule as possible.
3. Give gifts of experience not clutter to those with whom you can’t avoid gift sharing. This includes children.
4. Try doing a secret Santa when there is going to be a large crowd together for Christmas, everyone buys and gets only one gift. The environment and your bank account will thank you for it.
5. Do as much pre-holiday preparation that you can now before the rush really sets in.
6. Don’t be presumptuous about how your family want to celebrate the holidays. Ask their opinion. You may be going to far more bother than necessary.
7. If you are having a crowd at your home this Christmas why not allocate everyone to bring a plate of food. It will lessen the burden of expense and effort on your part. It is never too late to start a new tradition if you have never adopted this practice before.
8. Start good holiday traditions while your children are young. Set limits on what you give them and introduce them to charitable deeds by encourage them to declutter their old toys prior to the holidays by donating them to children less fortunate than them.
9. Send emails instead of cards, you don’t have to go out to buy them, you don’t have to write each one individually (just copy & paste) and you don’t have to stand in line at the post office to buy stamps to send them. And to top it off polluting transport isn’t used to deliver them.
10. Don’t sway to popular opinion, do the holidays/Christmas your way because that is the best way.

Today’s Declutter Item

Today’s mini mission was to declutter kids toys to make way for the holiday gifts coming in. Look at me I am still decluttering my son’s old toys and he is 20 years old. It was a collection though, which can end up hanging around a bit longer the the norm. I am slowly but surely having success with selling them on ebay.

Snoopy toys sold on ebay $15.50

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Rain. It’s been a warm dry week so far and I was just thinking this morning that I might have to water the garden this afternoon. Well that chore is done and I didn’t even have to lift a finger.

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

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

I have three main methods of disposal when it come to rehousing my clutter.

• I donate most of my items to the thrift store. I have used the same thrift store since the beginning of my declutter mission and now I volunteer there as well.
• I sell items that I feel inclined to recoupe my losses on, by auctioning them on ebay. It is a love hate relationship but all in all I have done pretty well out of it.
• And then there is Freecycle.org This is my go to place for when I am trying to responsibly dispose of items that are not appropriate for the thrift store or that are too awkward to sell on ebay.

Freecycle, like ebay, can have its love/hate aspects as well. I have come across more than one potential recipient who messed me around, not turning up and generally wasting my time. There is at least one lady that often tries to claim my stuff that has surely got to be either a hoarder or owns a secondhand store. Either way she is hopeless at showing up on the first attempt. But I can forgive these little inconveniences because of the many time I have successfully rehoused items that may otherwise have gone to waste.

• There was the broken guitar amplifier that one man was happy to tinker with
• A lamp that needed rewiring
• My old motorcycling leathers that were stiff from lack of use over 20 years and no longer fit me. These were eventually donated by the Freecycle recipient to a vintage motorcycle club to be auctioned to raise money.
• The hutch from my entertainment unit. I kept the bottom as my lowline TV unit and Freecycled the hutch section. It was collected by a carpenter who was thrilled to use the lead-light doors and was also going to salvage the timber for other projects.
• Numerous baseball souvenirs that weren’t worth the hassle of selling on ebay
• Some Snoopy toys
• A television that even the thrift store didn’t want. (Not featured as My Daily Declutter Item yet only collected on Saturday)
• A selection of collectable Coca Cola bottles that I felt iffy about selling on ebay because they were full and awkward to post. I didn’t think these were appropriate for the thrift store either because someone might have bought them to drink and they were way past their used-by dates. (Friday’s declutter item)
• And today’s declutter item, some seat cushion covers and back cushions for a pair of Ikea tub chairs. I doubt anyone would have wanted to buy these on ebay or at the thrift store but I found a taker on Freecycle within the afternoon or advertising them.

I know that there are a number of disadvantages of getting rid of your stuff this way…

• Sometimes people don’t show up when they say they will or at all in some cases. I usually just put the item on my front stoop and the people pick it up when they are ready. What do I care if someone steals it, I don’t want it anyway. It is somewhat annoying though when people don’t show up to collect an item that I don’t feel comfortable putting outside, such as the television. I make a time, I wait around, then I get a text saying “Sorry something else came up.” and I have wasted my afternoon. Grrrr! For me though, I will suck it up for the satisfaction of finding homes for my stuff and keeping it out of landfill.
• Another deterrent is the fact that you are giving complete strangers your contact and address information. Who knows what sort of people they are and soon they are going to turn up on your doorstep. I don’t let this bother me. I am sure there is only one fruitloop in a million and I haven’t encountered one yet. For the sake of extra safety, plan pick up times when you aren’t home alone.

In relation to people not turning us a arranged ~ I often pull the trigger too soon by being overeager to make arrangement with the first person to email in their interest in the item. I think it is probably better to wait a while, read all responses and pick the one who seems the most keen. Their eagerness may inspire them to be more punctual and accommodating. I will try this approach the next time I list something and see how it turns out.

The Freecycle Networkâ„¢ is made up of 4,989 groups with 8,800,647 members around the world. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by local volunteers (them’s good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box or by clicking on ‘Browse Groups’ . Have fun!

If you haven’t tried it yet why not give it a go. You have brought all of this stuff into your home. You have come to the conclusion that you no longer need or want it. The responsibility is now yours to dispose of it responsibly. I have had people say to me “Finding ways to get rid of clutter is such a bother.” My response to that is “Try harder!. You got yourself into this mess and it is up to you to do the right thing by the environment while getting yourself out of it. Think of it as penance from your past indiscretions and as an incentive to be a more responsible consumer in the future.”

Today’s Declutter Item

Some time ago I bought some slip on covers for my ageing Ikea tub chairs. Included were seat covers and back cushions so the ones below became excess to my needs. I stuck them in the bottom of a closet where they hid for years. Last Friday I finally got around to advertising them on Freecycle.org and lo and behold someone claimed them. She was happy, I was happy and the cushions were saved from landfill and stopped cluttering up my closet. Win Win!

Tub Chair Covers & Cushions

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Finding the time to get started on making my Christmas cards. I got the housework out of the way, even pulled down the microwave and cleaned the little nook it sits in. Meanwhile I did three loads of washing and answered lots of blog comments. Snuck in the odd coffee and a piece of chocolate here and there and still found time to make some cards.

“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

How did you do with Buy Nothing New October?

Colleen ~ I was hoping to say that I bought nothing new this October and personally I feel that I have done that. I have bought nothing that I wanted to buy that’s for sure. Unfortunately though the air conditioner in my car failed on me, and I had to have the compressor and the condenser replaced. I feel rather bitter and twisted about this for a number of reasons that I won’t bore you with. Technically the compressor was replace under warranty but who’s quibbling: it’s new, and it’s now mine.

Although it doesn’t count because it isn’t new, I did buy one secondhand item, a denim skirt that I paid $1 for, which will be donated back to the thrift shop because it did not suit my needs well enough to keep.

I did discover that it is easy enough to postpone a purchase until the next month to fulfil such a pledge. Now that I have proved my shower repair from last month was a success I need a new bathmat which I have put off buying until November. I suppose though that the resistance to instant gratification is a good lesson if nothing else. I think that pledging to buy nothing new for a whole year would be a far more dedicated venture.

In total I bought acquired two new items and one secondhand one. The air-con repair isn’t added clutter because the old parts were instantly decluttered, and the secondhand item and 21 other items will have been decluttered by month’s end. So I have made good strides in decluttering, that’s for sure.

Cindy ~ I’d say I did so so. Besides, food, medicine, and household disposables, I believe I probably bought about as much as usual. I purchased eight new items:

• 5 books (3 novels, all of which have been read, and 2 writing reference books, mostly for the use of the girls)
• 1 set of “bowl bonnets,” elasticized plastic covers for putting over bowls and plates. They’re an alternative to plastic wrap. (I purchased these at this time in order to get free shipping from Amazon.)
• collar and tag for the cat, who lost his other set

Also during the month, I purchased 17 used items, more than I normally would have, because our church had a gigantic garage sale. In addition, I decluttered 36 items. 36 items out, but 25 in. That’s not as good of a ratio as I would like. Definitely something to think about.

For those of you who participated in But Nothing New October, how did you do? And remember, a bunch of you dedicated yourself to Buy Nothing November. We look forward to hearing about your successes.

And one last acticle to leave you with on the Buy Nothing New initiative.From the Sydney Morning Herald

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

Today I am going to focus our mini missions on areas in our lives where we might have too much of a good thing. That is, I want you to choose an area that you have far too many of a similar category of clutter items, it might be sentimental objects, objects you feel obligated to keep but have no real love for, hobby / craft items, clothing items etc.

Instead of giving you a separate mission each day I just want you to choose one object from your chosen category to declutter each day. Start with the easiest item to part with, analyse why you have kept it so long, learn from that inward exploration and then move on to a different object the next day. Hopefully making progress each day will make it easier to part with the next item and in the end you might declutter more than seven.

Here are some categories of areas I had in mind but feel free to work on whatever best suits your needs.

• Sentimental items ~ particularly ones that you don’t really like but just keep because they remind you of something you aren’t likely to forget about anyway. Enjoying the here and now or even looking forward is usually more satisfying or productive than reminiscing on days gone by.
• Obligation clutter ~ Items you only keep because you feel you should, things someone gave you like unwanted gifts or family heirlooms rank high in this category.
• Aspirational Clutter ~ Things you “really are” going to get around to using/trying some day. Craft or hobby clutter that is excess to your needs.
• “I might need that some day” clutter ~ We all know what these are, things that you keep because they are so useful yet you never use them but you “may need them someday”. Tools, kitchen items, odds and ends like bottle of buttons, spare parts, excess furniture in the back shed etc.
• Things you keep meaning to put on eBay ~ Either do it or donate them to charity but it is time something was done. (I am going to do a basic step by step eBay listing post on Tuesday to help anyone struggling with this).
• Clothing and shoes ~ If you only have enough clothing items to suit your needs (and washing routine) the likelihood that they will wear out before they go out of style or you get sick of them increases. Hoping that items will come back into style or that you will loose weight and fit into them again is likely to cause you more greif than just cutting your loses, placing pressure on your wardrobe space or your psyche.

If you have any questions or struggles as you perform this week’s task please feel free to contact me either through comments or via my contact page (if you don’t want the world to see it). I am always here to help spur you on with your declutter mission, so don’t hesitate to ask for help.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Buying clothing is a tricky business, it pays to stick with the styles that suit you the most, are practical for the climate you live in and are classic in style and won’t date easily. The items in this pile were either uncomfortable after wearing for a while, out of style, weren’t particularly practical or “seemed like a good idea at the time”. The oldest piece is about ten years old and the newest is about two years old. Now they are going to the thrift store in the hope that someone else will like them.

Some of my clothing items

 Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful for the new leaves growing on my one and only indoor plant. It is a strange plant in so much as it has never changed from the day my daughter bought it for me about three years ago. It gets neglected at times but never dies nor grows when it is well tended but all of a sudden it has sprouted new leaves. Mine is not to reason why, I shall just enjoy the new growth in the middle of winter and be satisfied.

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

Hi Readers, today I am featuring the first of two interviews that were very generously offered to me by Ideealistin, one of our regular readers and commenters here at 365 Less Things. When she isn’t decluttering or reading my blog Ideealistin is a journalist and recently she conducted these two short email interview that she thought would be a nice fit with my blog. I was granted permission to publish these by the two interviewees today’s being with Bee Johnson of  The Zero Waste Home and the second interview with Dave Bruno from The 100 Things Challenge is scheduled for Thursday.

Without further adieu here is the interview with Bea Johnson:-

Ideealistin: Bea, voluntarily giving up things seems to become a serious lifestyle choice and it seems to have its’ origin in the super consumer culture of the USA. Do you sense the wish for less in your everyday life and neighbourhood? Or do you think we are more at a stage of talking about the concept and liking it rather than executing the “less”?

Bea Johnson:  I think it’s a combination of the two. People are interested in living with less but they do not quite know how to change their accumulation habits. I think the American culture makes it too easy to accumulate. We are pounded with ads, are handed out freebies everywhere we go, and it is often easier to buy things then not buy them, (i.e, repair them or rent them). Which is why I have added the Refuse to our set of Zero Waste rules. We have been able to achieve very low waste by Refusing what we do not need (junk mail, freebies, plastic bags), but also by Reducing what we do need, Reusing by using and shopping with reusables, Recycling what we cannot refuse, reduce or reuse and Composting the rest.

Ideealistin:  Your change came about with downsizing house. Did looking at the way you were living make you want to downsize or did downsizing trigger the purging and rethinking?

Bea Johnson:  It is downsizing that triggered our rethinking.

Several years ago, we moved from a large home located in a bedroom community (where the car was our main mode of transportation) to a home half the size in an active downtown. We wanted to be able to walk or ride everywhere (school, stores, coffee shop, movies, theatre). But before finding the small house, we rented a small apartment for a year, with only a few necessities. We stored the rest. We immediately found out the benefits of living with less, We had more time to do the things that are important to us, such as spending time with family and friends, and explore/enjoy the outdoors. Once we moved in the small house, we let go of 80% of our belongings. It is with more time, that we also started educating ourselves on environmental issues, and decided to do something about it for the sake of our kids future. In the midst of the recession, my husband quit his job to start a sustainability consulting company, I tackled the house and our lifestyle.

Ideealistin:  You gave up on something, nobody really wants in the first place: waste. Were you expecting the harsh criticism that people confronted you with for giving up something that would end in the trash five minutes later anyway?

Bea Johnson:  I am not surprised by the criticism and expected it when going into it. I thought long about it before starting my blog. I live in a very consumerist society. Our story makes people reflect on their own shopping habits and sometimes shatters their way of thinking, But we’re not telling anyone how to live their lives, we’re just sharing how we live ours.

Ideealistin:  You did not really have a guide into your lifestyle changes. Would you have wanted one? How did you keep yourself motivated and assured of being on the right track? How do you feel about more and more growing into the role of a sort of guide yourself for others?

Bea Johnson: Had I had a guide, I would have reached our current waste level, much faster. Not having one though, allowed me to test some extremes and find my level of comfort without compromising our trash level. It helped me evaluate and stick to changes that are sustainable, i.e. applicable to the long term. We do not consider Zero Waste as a short term project, but rather a lifestyle. All along, my motivation was, is and will be, the future of my kids.

Ideealistin:  Relinquish waste also meant to give up certain things or find alternatives. Today you say you like your new way of life and the alternatives better – but how did giving up feel on the way? Did you have cravings, hard times, thoughts of giving up?

Bea Johnson: With any change, naturally comes adaptation. Washing my hair with baking soda and vinegar for 6 months, made me feel like someone else – or something else, like salad dressing ;). I realized that I had gone too far by “giving up” hair luster that comes with shampooing. I now use shampoo sold in bulk (I refill my bottle at the store). Today, I do not feel that I am “giving up” anything, as we have found a balance and have Zero Waste on auto-pilot. After all, this lifestyle has not only made our family happier, healthier, and more organized, but it has also saved us money and more importantly time! With that in mind and contrary to popular belief, I think this lifestyle gives back more than it takes away.

Ideealistin:  When talking (and blogging) about your choices you’ll always get other opinions, some thinking you go too far, others thinking you do too little. How did (or do, if this is still something you think about today) you manage to find the right balance?

Bea Johnson: My balance is based on finding out what worked for me and my family, and ignoring other people’s opinions. If we worried about other people’s opinions, we would have never evolved. I think worrying about people’s opinions is what keeps many people from changing, it puts them into an action paralysis. I truly believe and live by these Gandhi words: “Be the change you want the world to be.”

Ideealistin:  Many people seem to see zero waste and „less is more” not as an option because they feel their spontaneity (or even their creativity) endangered by not being able to buy things on the go (whether be it coffee or shoes they like and that maybe are on sale). Do you feel or ever felt too unspontaneous?

Bea Johnson: Spontaneity can manifest itself in many different ways. One does not have to be an ardent consumer in order to be spontaneous. It is actually with the time that we have gained from living with less that we have gained spontaneity (less time to care for things, means more time to care for people). It might not be through consuming an unneeded pair of shoes (thoughtless purchase), but rather through getting together with friends: sharing an impromptu glass of wine, or going for coffee (the coffee shops serve in reusable ceramic cups), or packing a last minute picnic … This lifestyle puts more emphasis on human interaction than it does on stuff, of course.

***End Of Interview***

I think you will agree with me that Ideealistin asked some very pertinent questions here and was given some very thoughtful and candid responses by Bea. I for one had a lot of the questions answered that I had been wondering about Bea and how the metamorphose of her and her families lifetstyle took place.

Thank you so much to Ideealistin and of course to Bea Johnson for the opportunity to release this interview here at 365 Less things.

Today’s Declutter Item

There will be a lot more Snoopy stuff passing through the Declutter Item of the Day before the end of the year. There are some to donate and some to try to sell on ebay. So expect to see a lot more of it.

Snoopy Toys

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Today I would like to say how grateful I am to you all, my wonderful readers for joining me on my declutter journey and in some cases sticking with me for a very long time now. Every new reader is a blessing and any faithful reader who has stuck with me through thick and thin are considered a friend. It is great that some of you add your voices to my post through your comments. Those comments make this blog a more rounded experience for all readers as well as for me. New and differing opinions is how we learn in life and I am always grateful for the opportunity to learn. So thank you everyone, new, faithful, talkative or silent, I know you are out there listening and I am grateful for that.

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