It’s the big reveal, not of a completely decluttered craft room but more of the extent to the amount of craft supplies I actually had in the first place. Also as the heading today implies I really only am in mid-declutter of this area. I intend to continue in my usual gradual manner until I am content that I have the situation under control. The process of taking the photos opened my mind even further to how much area this takes up in ratio to how little time I spend actually being creative in it. If you are even in doubt about what needs clearing out in an area I suggest you take a look at it through a camera lens. That will really focus you view!

I would just like to point out at this point that the brown sewing cabinet in the photo is now empty and I will be putting it up for sale when I return from vacation so that will really make a difference to the appearance of the space. As I said this area is a work in progress and I will update you again sometime in the near future.

On Sunday I received the following email from one of 365’s regular readers asking a question I am sure we all wonder about at times.

Dear Colleen

Tell me,  does this decluttering task ever come to an end?  I attacked my clothes cupboard this morning – shoes to go, shoes to demould and then decide, shoes to keep – a jacket for my daughter, two blouses to the hospice shop, a pair of trousers to try on (some time), and the rest to face another day. During six weeks of convalescing I have tidied away a mountain of papers, and organised the rest, read many books, and sent most on their way, and still I can hardly see a lot of change (except in my outlook).  Do we ever get to a stage where we can say “There’s nothing else to get rid of”? I’d really like to know.

Cheers

I must admit after decluttering non-stop for the last, almost, 17 months I have often wondered the very same thing. That being said I am not getting impatient to see the last of my clutter leave the house in fact I am very happy to still be plodding along. I have noticed lately thought that I have gotten to the stage where I know I am now dealing with items I have been ignoring almost since the beginning. Items I have known that I intended to get rid of but for one reason or another kept putting off. I suppose this is a sign that I am getting to the bottom of the heap and will soon be entering the maintenance stage.

Back to the question at hand and why decluttering can feel like an endless task at times. First of all we have to face the fact that the clutter didn’t appear over-night so it isn’t going to disappear over-night either. There are lots of memories tied up in some of the clutter that makes it difficult to part with quickly. There are phases we have to accept we are done with before getting rid of the related clutter. There is some clutter that requires a lot of time to deal with like the mountains of paper the e-mailer mentioned above. There are many items that when removed don’t even seem to make a dent in the collection. And if you are like me and most of your clutter was well hidden throughout the house you really won’t notice it is gone unless you open a cupboard or two.

The e-mailer actually hit the nail on the head when they wrote this line ~ “I can hardly see a lot of change (except in my outlook)” ~ this is key to the situation. Even though it isn’t always visually obvious that we have reduced our clutter so long we know in our head we have and feel the relief from this burden lifted from our shoulders then we are winning the battle.

Decluttering can be a bit like weight loss ~ if you go on a quick loss diet you will likely loose a lot of weight fast and then put it back on again soon enough because you haven’t changed your lifestyle. If you educate yourself about better eating habits and change your diet to suit, then you are likely to have a gradual weight loss and the wisdom to know how to keep that weight off.  Similarly if you declutter in a rush only focusing on making room for the next thing to come along then you will be back to square one in no time. If you learn from your clutter, understand the tendencies that cause the clutter to accumulate and break those habits you are more likely to reach your declutter goal and never find yourself in such a cluttered mess again. This can take some time but it is well worth it in the long term.

I have decluttered my home quickly several times over the last twenty three years, getting rid of lots of stuff I didn’t want to take with me to my next location. In essence that was twenty three years of decluttering to end back at square one, actually worse than square one, with more stuff than when I started. In the last seventeen months or slow and steady decluttering I have learned so many lessons will have given me the wisdom never to get into that situation ever again.

So don’t be discouraged if your decluttering mission is taking a while just enjoy the process and soak up the lessons you are learning along the way. You and your home will be better for it in the long run.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is the craft clutter that I sold last week. I did bring home about half the paper I took to sell and the box of foam stamps at the RH bottom of the lower photo. I intend to drop the paper off at the school down the street before the week is up. The foam stamps I am not too sure about. I made $230 and donated quite a bit of stuff to the craft group who were so kind as to allow me to have the sale.

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ When comedy shows reflect the silly goings on in your own life.
• Something Awesome ~ Freecycle
• Something to be grateful for ~ The 9pm cup of tea my husband makes me each night.
• Something that makes me happy ~ Doing little favours for people. That always feels good.
• Something I found fascinating ~ How sometimes your comfort zone is actually a case of “better the devil you know” when actually the grass can be a whole lot greener on the other side.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Colleen has issued a Use It Up Challenge several times. The most recent one I can find is in September. I’ve been thinking a lot about this challenge recently because we are finally coming to the end of it here at the Bogard household. Along the way, I consumed all the multiday vitamins and calcium I had in the cabinet, and we used all the various extra bottles shampoos and conditioners along with several toothpaste tubes that the girls had not squeezed down tho their last drops.

Those items were quickly finished in comparison to the soap challenge. I had no idea we owned so much soap! I tried a couple of times to give away the Mr. Bubble then put it into the dispenser with the kitchen soap. (Not the best idea, according to my husband. He feels it lacks any grease cutting ability.)  The rest of it, we have been using up one shower, one bath at a time. We had soap the girls had made, soap their friends had made and given as gifts, chunks of soap left over from when we made soap, fruity smelling bath bars that had been given as gift, little soaps from hotels, and at least a dozen smallish bottles of bath gel that had been gifts. Obviously, the trouble with even a useful gift is that it’s clutter if you don’t use it, so using it is what we’ve been doing, apparently since September. That’s eight months ago!

As we’re approaching the end of the soap supplies, I’ve started thinking about other things that can be used up. The only thing I’ve really latched onto is plastic bags, specifically the sturdy plastic bags that mulch comes in. The last time I did a big mulching, I neatly cut open the tops of the bags and saved them, all stored inside of one bag. I found them when I was cleaning the shed. I decided that since I’d saved them, since they were still intact, and since they really can’t be recycled despite the recycling symbol on the side (too many bits of mulch still clinging to them), I would use them as kitchen trash bags.

I typically only use one kitchen-size trash bag a week, and it holds everything.  These mulch bags are quite a bit smaller than my kitchen trash can – not as wide nor as tall. I had to consciously decide to use them. Because they don’t hold as much, I’ve been using one and a half or two bags per week and am very gradually making my way through them. (I also reuse the large bags my toilet paper comes in as well as dog food and bird seed bags, but those I have much less frequently.) I am packing for a camping trip this weekend and decided to put a couple of the bags in with my kitchen things. They’ll make sturdy camp trash bags. (I am also taking a recycling bin.) If I hadn’t consciously chosen to use the bags, they’d have been wasted when I was dumping the mulch out – it’s a lot easier to get the mulch out if I split the bag down the center than it is to cut just the top – but I chose to Use It Up. (Or, to be more truthful, in the past I decided to Save It Up. In the present, I decided to Use It Up.)

What do you have that’s consumable and in excess to your needs? Food? Check the pantry and the freezer. Toiletries? Check under the sinks and in the bathroom drawers. Craft items? Check your supply drawers. Or is it something more creative like my reduce and reuse mulch/trash bags? Let me know what you’re using up.

Note from Cindy: I am driving the 5th graders on an overnight field trip Tues and Wed (US) or Wed and Thurs (Aus), and I likely will not be able to respond to comments. I have asked Colleen to try and keep up with them if she has time. If not, I’ll jump in when I return.

Today’s Declutter Item

Craft Adhesive (Use it up)

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me laugh ~ An amusing email response to my ki-ai story yesterday. I will not embarrase the author of the email by revealing her name or the details but needless to say her story was way more hilarious than mine and Ki-ai has forever had a special significance to her from that day onward. To be able to laugh at yourself is a good quality to have to give someone else permission to laugh at you is a special gift.
• Something Awesome ~ When you are late for an appointment but they were running late and you arrive just in time.
• Something to be grateful for ~ The opportunities that life continues to deal out to us whether we are expecting them or not.
• Something that made me happy ~A wonderful unplanned day of eating, chatting and laughing with old friends and new.
• Something I find fascinating ~ The things women talk about when we get together. I wonder what men talk about when we aren’t around. I bet they don’t have nearly as much fun or are as open as us females.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

According to my mother, a successful and busy real estate agent for 28 years who has looked in thousands of closets, my husband and I are an anomaly: he has far, far more clothes than I do. He’s not a clothes horse; he’s gentle with his clothes (unlike me, I’m sorry to say), so they last and last. He wears a standard American working guy wardrobe: khakis, Dockers, button down shirts, polos, and t-shirts on Friday and the weekends.  He gets a couple new dress shirts a year and a ridiculous number of new t-shirts (his work, conferences, and other people’s vacations [never our own]), so the clothes really build up.

When I began decluttering, he had 100 t-shirts and a generous number of shirts for work. I got him to give up six t-shirts at once. Then my daughter got 10 out of him for a project. I was sure that he could do with even less, started Operation No Brainer. I turned all the hangers in his closet around the wrong way, and then I waited.

Where we live, we pretty much only have two seasons: cool and various degrees of hot.  I waited through the end of the hot season and the whole cool season before I went back into his closet.  Not surprisingly, the clothes that were turned around had been moved to the outside. We looked at them together and turned three around: a red shirt that he wears once a year to church on Pentecost, and two concert t-shirts from his younger days.  There were only ten  things to take out! I have to say, I was surprised by how much of his wardrobe he wore. I was also surprised at how much of his wardrobe had disappeared because of this exercise, not at the end, but along the way. Having the hangers backwards made him more aware of what was in his closet. Some of the things he decided to unload before the end.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! I learned that most of Dan’s clothes are in rotation. Dan liked the ease of not having to make any real decisions, and he didn’t have to defend himself against  me trying to get rid of things he wanted to keep. Almost imperceptibly, his t-shirt wardrobe decreased by about 40 shirts and his dress shirts by about a dozen. We also eliminated a number of pairs of pants that no longer fit. (One was visibly dusty where it folded over the hanger!) Without a doubt, this was the easiest decluttering ever… you might even call it a No-Brainer!

Today’s Declutter Item

This box of tarot cards was another item decluttered from Liam’s room. Maybe he decided that he had a better chance of becoming an artist than a fortune teller.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• My baby (19 year old Liam) went off to his first day of his second year of university today – It kind of felt like driving him to his first day of school when he was little because four months ago we had our doubts he would ever come home never mind be back at university so soon. I think we will celebrate with donuts at the mall after I pick him up.
• Catching a fleeting glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye and having a giggle about what I thought it looked like – Needless to say there was not a kiwi bird on the footpath in Australia.
• Discovering the nectarines taste almost as good as figs do when you heat them up in the microwave with honey and they eat them with a dollop of thickened cream.
• Hot cinnamon donuts
• Finding out that I can do just a spin cycle with my front loading washer- If in doubt read the instructions

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

Excessive clutter is often generated by two kinds of self indulgence – Acquiring too much and Feeling sorry for yourself.

Strong words I know but keep with me and I will explain what I mean. I speak from experience here so forgive me if those words sound harsh.

The first part of this statement is self-explanatory by sheer definition… Clutter – a confused multitude of things; fill a space in a disorderly way. Either we have over indulged in a multitude of things we don’t need to the point where we don’t even use most of them or cannot accommodate them easily in our space. AND/OR . We have not disposed of items as they have become redundant or perished (sometimes from lack of use)  nor stored these items in an orderly manner. I think that explanation describes clutter in both its forms, that is hidden clutter and messy clutter. Either way we have over indulged and/or been careless in our maintenance.

Now for the second part to this statement – Feeling sorry for yourself. There are so many ways that this issue manifests itself and sorry may not be the best word but with a little manipulation it sort of works for all categories. Keeping in mind that  self indulgence was the focus for the initial statement.

Some ways that feeling sorry for yourself causes clutter to build up in your living environment…

• Retail Therapy – Buying stuff to make you feel better when you feel sorry for yourself. A common cause of the first part of the self indulgence issue, acquiring too much stuff.
• Lethargy – A state of sluggishness, inactivity, and apathy. This condition is often a result of  illness, depression, bad eating habits and lack of exercise just to name a few. All of these causes are bound to make you feel sorry for yourself. It often results in neglect of your belongings, your surroundings and quite often yourself causing a downward spiral that is harder to recover from the longer it is allowed to take hold.
• Avoidance – Feeling sorry for yourself in advance causing unnecessary delays in tackling an unpleasant task. Especially a task that is hard to break down into smaller more manageable portions. Such as my hatred of cleaning my oven.
• Denial -A situation where you  have had an intense period of justified self sympathy due to any number of causes – marriage breakdown, loss of a loved one, accommodation upheaval or loss of employment just to name a few – can quite often lead to a severe case of insecurity. Such cases can in turn lead to a tendency to hoard items that give you back a feeling of security – items that hold fond memories and useful items that you may need if you hit hard times again. Of course to you all these items are justified therefore it is easy to live in complete denial that you even have a clutter problem.

(Don’t miss the links hidden under each on of the heading above.)

I know I have fallen in the trap of lethargy and avoidance in the past and probably will again in the future. I find that when I have been ill or suffering from a bout of depression it is very easy to feel sorry for myself and neglect both myself and my duties. Most of the time I find that I don’t start feeling better until I shake myself off and decide just to make myself start behaving normally then before I know it I start feeling better. Sitting around feeling sorry for myself only seems to serve to make me feel worse and seeing my home fall apart around me doesn’t help the situation.

As for neglecting unpleasant jobs – who hasn’t been guilty of that? – I know I have. Yesterday when I starting writing this post just listening to my train of thought on the subject inspired me to get up and treat my motorbike leathers to a good feed of leather conditioner, a job that has been needing doing since we pulled them out of the shipping container the day we moved into this house three and a half years ago. I also sprayed out the oven so I could clean it today.  That is still a b***h of a job and it needs a second going over but I am getting there and it is a whole lot better today than it was yesterday. If anyone has any tips on roasting in an oven without make a huge mess please feel free to share them with me. I like my roasts to be crispy on the outside so I fear that cooking them in a closed baking dish will not allow this to happen but the mess I keep making of my oven is just not acceptable and I need to come up with a better plan.

Today’s Declutter Item

Guitar cords are like iPod jack cords – they don’t last forever. One of those built in redundancy tricks I suppose.

Before I start on my grateful list I would just like to send words of love and support and prayers to the people of Christchurch, New Zealand and anyone else affected by the recent earthquake. So far 75 are confirmed dead and there have been 300+ missing person reports lodged. Hopefully the numbers won’t be as high as that but at this point things are looking very grim. The rescue effort is being hampered by the threat of other buildings toppling. This must be heart breaking for those whose loved ones haven’t been recovered. My heart goes out to them and their families and I hope the nightmare of uncertainty ends for them soon.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• Being one day closer to the workmen being finished at my house. It is hard to get out and do what you want or need to do.
• My air-conditioner is no longer sitting at the end of my bed but back on the balcony attached to its power supply and working.
  
• My friend Liz took a whole car load of clutter to the thrift store today. Way to go Liz! Tomorrow we will have more to celebrate than just her birthday. Happy birthday Lizzy!
  
• Finding time to do some crafting.
  
• Making contact with some old friends through Facebook.

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

Saturday Quick Post – by Cindy

I fought the art closet, and I won. What was removed…

• A velvet art book
• 2 Idea books
• Some origami paper & instruction book
• 2 Set of glitter glue pens
• A package of horse stencils.

All these were donated. I also gathered a bunch of little tidbits for the craft corner of the 2nd grade classroom and threw away a huge number of little bits of dry, dusty and yarn-wrapped junk.

Before we begin reading today’s wonderful post by Cindy I just wanted to wish all my fellow Aussies a Happy Australia Day

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

I just started reading Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project. I was attracted to it because, well, who wouldn’t want to be happier, and also because I read that Ms. Rubin’s first task in pursuit of happiness was decluttering her closet. Now there’s an idea I can get behind!

Here’s how she describes her first adventure: “When I had finished…I could see huge patches of the back of my closet. I no longer felt drained; instead, I felt exhilarated. No more being confronted with my mistakes! No more searching in frustration for a particular white button-down shirt!” Doesn’t that make you want to run straight to your own closet?

In thinking about her own clutter, Ms. Rubin breaks it apart into categories, and I like her divisions. They are

1. Nostalgic clutter – “Relics I clung to from my earlier life.” Sports trophies and my husband’s college lecture notes fall into this category.
2. Conservation clutter – Things which have been hung onto to because they’re useful, even though they are not (or are no longer) useful to you. Winter coats and sweaters when you no longer live in a cold climate or a bunch of bud vases that have built up over time are conservation clutter.
3. Bargain clutter and its twin Freebie clutter – Deal too good to be true? Or, better yet, free? That’s where bargain and freebie clutter come from.  (You can read a post on freebies here http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=597.)
4. Crutch clutter – Items that are worn out and should have been replaced, possibly years ago, but you continue on with them. You love them! You need them! . . . No, really, you don’t.
5. Aspirational clutter – I love this category. This is the things that you own that you aspire to use, but don’t. Craft and hobby clutter or a fabulous evening gown could fall into this category.
6. Outgrown clutter – Ms. Rubin sees this as the flip side of aspirational clutter. This is the stuff that you aspired to use, then did use, and now no longer use, but still have.
7. Buyer’s remorse clutter – I think this is a tough category for a lot of people. It’s hard to admit that you made a bad purchase but hanging onto it is not going to improve the situation.

When you declutter today, ask yourself, What category of clutter is this?

Today’s Declutter Item

It was my stupid idea to buy this video camera years ago. I soon realised I didn’t want to see every event in our lives through a camera lens. Needless to say it hardly got used but now it has a new home thanks to the wonders of eBay. It sold be a mere $51.00. That’s one more piece of guilt clutter eliminated from my life.

Things I am grateful for today

• Bridget (my daughter) made it to the next round of interviews with the defence recruiters today – She is hoping to follow in her fathers footsteps.
• Realising a task was easier than I expected it to be – I thought it was going to be a pain making a pavlova for Australia Day was going to be more of a bother than it turned out to be.
• Living in a country full of opportunity, abundance and freedom of choice – Not everyone can enjoy such liberty.
  
• Lots of good responses to yesterday’s post
• Receiving an invitation – Even if I couldn’t make it, it is still nice to be asked.
  

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

“Is prosperity only a material condition? Is there not prosperity of the soul? Outward riches without inward peace, I think we can all agree is a tentative state of wealth.” –Dave Bruno

Having never actually been a follower of Dave Bruno’s Blog, I only had a vague idea what the 100 thing challenge was all about, and in my ignorance I was very sceptical about the concept of paring down to only 100 things. The odd snippets I did come across while reading minimalist blogs gave me the impression that a lot of people were jumping on the band wagon like it was some kind of competition as to how few things the participants could live with.

When out of the blue I received an email from Mary at Harper Collins asking if I would be interested in receiving a free copy to review my initial reaction was to think – Do I really want to add this book clutter to my home.  Then I thought – What have I a got to loose, I can always hand the book on when I am done.

Well I have to say the book pleasantly surprised me. The story is simply one man’s attempt to break free from the constraints of American-Style consumerism. As my readers know I am  a strong advocate for adopting a more sustainable approach to consuming. My first advice when it comes to decluttering is to be conscious about what you buy or you will just be re-cluttering while you are decluttering.

Dave lives with his wife and three daughters in San Diego, California. He sets his story up with a little information about his life from both a business and personal point of view so we get to know him a little. He outlines the rules  of his challenge so we know exactly what is considered personal items, and what items are considered shared property, so not included in the challenge. Dave is honest and open about his struggles during the challenge, and about the mistakes he made with some of his choices.

He touches on how disappointment is built into the products we buy causing us to be constantly dissatisfied with our purchases. I could really relate to this and have blogged about this problem myself in the past on Day 214 and Day 111. Sustainability is not even a factor in some of the useless and flimsy products on the market.

Even though he took a year to reduce his belongings to the 100 thing limit, it forced him to part with some things that he later regretted not keeping.  This particularly concerned me as he then talks of replacing those items once the challenge was over. He also traded a few items out as the challenge went along.  All in all though, compared to the average consumer he certainly set a fabulous example for how we can all live a fulfilling life with minimal possessions. Several months after the challenge is over he is still living with less than 100 personal items, and content that the challenge brought him to to his goal of being a more thoughtful and joyful person.

Would I recommend reading this book? Yes, I personally preferred reading the first half of the book, it tells of Dave’s soul searching to choose which 100 personal items to keep. He delves into the reasons behind why he was clinging to certain objects in his life, how he came to terms with and untangled those ties. How there is more to it than just parting with the items but also letting go of the unrealised dreams that those items represent. For this alone the story is really worth the read.

I wouldn’t suggest that you reduce you personal belongings to 100 things on a whim?  No, but it is not unreasonable to think that in the endeavour to simplify and declutter your life you may wake up one day and realise you have done  just that. I have no doubt that you would be happier for it.

Today’s Declutter Item

Another DVD that Liam decluttered. He has been very cooperative with the decluttering lately and I am milking that for all it’s worth. There is no telling how long it will last.

Things I am grateful for today

1. I have managed to resurrect a favourite pair of shoes today with the help of a bottle of suede/nubuck dye.
2. I found a good red lentil dahl recipe on the internet.
3. I have my car back – Steve’s motorbike is finally back on the road.
4. I made it home safe and sound each time I left the house today – despite the fact that in four separate instances when vehicles tried or did take my right of way. I seem to have been a crazy driver magnet today.
   
5. Memories of reading bedtime stories to my children when they were younger- I loved reading to them and sometimes I would con them into brushing my hair so I would read an extra story. I love to having my hair brushed.
   

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Audra is eight years old and a fashionista. The lucky girl gets hand-me-downs from her sister and her sister’s friend, plus she occasionally gets new clothes of her own, typically from the thrift store. Audra changes clothes many times a day (thank goodness she wears a uniform to school!) and makes some really wonderful outfits.

I have been of several different minds about Audra and her clothes. Initially I would tell everyone, “Don’t buy her clothes. She doesn’t need any clothes,” etc. Then, as I started decluttering and reflecting on our choices, I realized that Audra enjoys a good shirt far more than any other toy, game, or art supply she could receive. If you’re going to buy a gift, it should be one that the person really loves, so then I thought, “Good, clothes it is.” Unfortunately, I quickly regretted my choice. Why? Audra never cleans up after herself. Her clothes were thrown over the bar instead of hung, or they were dropped on the floor barely worn but would quickly become dirty after being stepped on. I got mad, ridiculously mad. I resented the mess; I resented the extra laundry; I started resenting her.

One of Audra’s excuses was that she didn’t know how to hang her clothes properly. I spend several hours teaching her how to hang the clothes and rewarding her a nickel an item. This strategy was only mildly successful, but I used it to justified my anger. Now I knew she was just being careless. Time passed, and I wasted precious time and energy steaming.

Then one day, I had a calm moment when I realized that I was handling the situation backwards. I realized that Audra didn’t have a problem; she didn’t care that her clothes were on the ground or that I was intermittently angry at her. (She’s got a temper too and a very resilient personality.) It was me who had a problem, and it is my job is to solve my problems. I got a big trash bag and picked up everything from her floor and everything that was not hung properly, except stray uniforms, which went into the laundry, and I put the trash bag in the bottom of my closet. To my stunned surprise, Audra didn’t notice. About a week later, I made the same sweep. Audra started to notice that she was having a bit more trouble matching outfits, but she didn’t see the bigger picture.

The third time I made the floor sweep, Audra walked in while I was stuffing my plastic bag, which now bulged like Santa’s sack. She was shocked, but we had a calm discussion. She rightly pointed out that she has more clothes than anyone else in the family but less hanging space. We brought in a rolling rack from the spare room. She helped me figure out how the clothes should be organized, and we started unpacking the bag of confiscated goods. She was surprisingly merciless, weeding out everything that she thought she no longer wanted. After a while, she got tired, we stopped hanging things up, and she has never asked for the remaining items. Her clothes have really not been an issue since, and we finished this project at least six weeks ago.

I realized that I let this problem – my problem – go on and on because I was too chicken to diminish her clothing pile. I really thought it would break her heart and that I would win the Mean Mom of the Year Award. How wrong I was. Audra still loves her clothes, but we both realized that in the land of plenty, it’s easy to have plenty too much.

Item 356 of 365 less things

Yet another thing that I have been passing over during the year. I don’t think this has been used in 3 years. Out it goes.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. A roof over my head and a bed to sleep in – That is more than some people have.
2. The good times together with family.
3. Being organised for Christmas – The gift is bought, the pudding is ready and the house is clean.
4. Stone fruit – Peaches, cherries, plums, apricots etc they are one of the best things about a summer Christmas.
5. My little car – It’s compact, easy to park and cheap on the gas.
   

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

I used to be an editor, which invariably involves reading and rereading the same material. As far as I can tell, the process I used was similar to what most editors use. First I would read through the material, changing any obvious mistakes, but my larger goal was simply to familiarize myself with the material. Next, I would read it through looking for content discrepancies and sentences, or even whole paragraphs, that should be moved around or removed. The next time through, I would search out formatting errors, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. Last, I would print the document and read it on paper, giving it a final check. If I found more than one or two mistakes, I would print it again, and keep at it until I found no errors.

Decluttering is no different than editing. You begin by getting rid of the really obvious stuff – a huge, uncomfortable, and ugly chair that you’ve always hated, the big mixer you don’t like, the vacuum cleaner your honey said he would fix but never did. But you have to keep going round and round to find everything that should be winnowed. Perhaps we become more ruthless the more we declutter, but perhaps it’s just that when the really obvious things are gone, you can now truly see what else might also be unnecessary.

Recently, I was struggling with a kitchen closet. It holds my small appliances, Dan’s “secret” stash of chips and hot sauce, any extra cases of soda or beer, the step stool, a broom and dust pan, a dust mop and microfiber covers, a mop, and a large plastic bag for plastic recycling. (I don’t accept plastic bags at the store but still accumulate bread wrappers, shrink wrap, etc.)

There’s enough room in the closet for all of these things, but it’s not working. The brooms and mop tend to fall out on me, and the appliances are more jumbled than I would like.

First I looked at the big picture. Was there anything in here that simply did not belong? Yes, the extra batteries that my husband had stored on an upper shelf. Then I thought about each of the small appliances. Any that could go? Yes, an ice cream ball, a box of rock salt, an ice shaver, and 3 bottles of snow cone syrup. I took those out and tidied up what was left. That helped with the organization, but the mops and brooms were still in the way. I left them there to think about.

Today I realized that although the idea of storing them in this closet is a good one, the space and ease of access is not good. I’m going to put a couple of hooks on the back wall of the laundry room and move them. Even though I don’t have the hooks, I went ahead and moved the brooms and mop, so I can confirm that this really will be a benefit. Then,  in a couple of days, I will stand back from the kitchen closet, look again, and ask, is there anything else in here that needs editing?

Item 349 of 365 less things

This tool caddy was a lot less useful than I expected it to be and I haven’t used it for a long while so out it goes.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Scones – They are so nice with jam and cream and so easy to make. There is a batch in the oven right now and I am going to have one soon with a cup of coffee while they are still piping hot.
   
2. Laughter – You know the tears rolling down your cheeks kind. Liam and I are looking at some funny web sites and trying to relate what we are seeing and we are having trouble with talking between the laughter. Check out failblog.
3. When I receive a cute Christmas card that has a great design I can reproduce myself next year.
4. Good design – I have a coffee grinder whose grinding bowl comes off so it can be easily be washed. If that isn’t smart enough – The designer had the foresight to make drain holes where the mechanism is on the underside so that when it goes in the dishwasher the water drains out. Brilliant!
5. Actually having my blog post ready to publish before dinner.
   

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