I have written, more than once, about clutter categories on my blog. Categories such as obligation clutter, sentimental clutter, lazy clutter, guilt clutter… One category I have written about before but am not sure I have ever labelled is Life Circle Clutter.

I have been reminded by recent events that people usually have their own particular clutter weakness or weaknesses. I have also noticed that these weaknesses may involve not accepting that a certain phase of ones life is now in the past.

For example, are you reluctance to let go of the fact that there are no longer young children permanently in your life. Does your home have enough kiddy items ~ toys particularly ~ to cater to more than one small child living there permanently. While in fact children only visit their once or twice a year with the occasional half hour visit from neighbours’ children.

Do you have enough kitchen items, linen, and rooms to cater for a large family while there is only two of you left in the home. Do you know someone who is reluctant to part with a shed full of tools that even they admit are rarely, if ever, used.

This is not simply a case of “I might need it someday.” but more of a reluctance to let go of the past and be realistic about who and what one is in the here and now.

I am not talking about being reluctant to part with items of past interest that one is still able and likely to return to. This is a case of being resistant to the circle of life. There comes a time when we simply pass through phases that are never to return and it can be very sad if we can’t accept that. Life is all about change. Change isn’t a bad thing it is simply inevitable. That doesn’t mean that you can’t still enjoy these things it just means you don’t have to cater to them 24/7. A bucket of toys for visiting children, a realistic number of items to cater for the occasional guest and enough tools for the odd jobs you still perform around the home…

Enjoy the happy memories, revel in your new circumstances and make the most of life no matter what phase of it you are in. And, of course, let go of those excess things that are now of little or no use to you.

Today’s Mini Mission

Let go of some grown children clutter ~ This is something long ago left behind by your grown child. Your home is not a storage unit, ask them to collect it and let them know you are going to get rid of it otherwise. With a little diplomacy this is possible without alienating them.

Eco Tip for the Day

Check the water flow of your shower (litres per minute). If it uses more than 9 litres per minute I would suggest you buy a new water saving shower head. Some go as low as 7.5 litres per minute.

To test the shower run it on full blast for 10 seconds. It should use no more than 1.5 litres in that time.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

As anyone who has been reading my blog for a while would know, my decluttering style is usually slow, steady and haphazard. That is, I declutter random items from all over the house, rarely concentrating on one particular area. This method, however,  doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone of course. If that is the case for you then it is best to concentrate on one area at a time or the task would probably drive you crazy.

With that being said here is a strategy to use when decluttering space by space.

If the idea of letting go of things disturbs you but the annoyance of keeping them is equally disturbing, perhaps it is time to adopt a new focus. Instead of looking at each item, look at the space itself and decide what it will take to master it. What or how much do you need to let go of in order to feel comfortable and happy with and in that space. Sit in the room and imagine the serenity of having this area of your home uncluttered, easy to take care of and only containing items you use and/or enjoy.

With the joyous thought of how good it would feel to achieve such a goal, start choosing the items you care the lease about or have the least use for, and start removing them. Sort them into your sell or giveaway boxes and trash or recycle the rubbish items. All the while keeping your focus on mastering your space rather than succumbing to the temptation of keeping items for insubstantial sentimental reasons. Remembering all the while that YOU ARE NOT YOUR STUFF.

If you only keep the most loved items or/and the most useful items the result will be the best of both worlds. That is, a serene room with just enough items to keep it practical, functional and/or beautiful.

One 365ers example of mastering her space.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one bookshelf. Not the whole bookcase, just one shelf.

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t pander to older children by driving them here there and everywhere. The exercise will do them good to walk, ride or take a bus when and where appropriate. I am sure the fuel savings will be quickly noticed and they will grow more independent for it.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

Have you ever been in a relationship with a person who was just too hard to please. Someone that no matter what you gave them it was never enough. Your time, your effort and your hard earned money all wasted in vain, that person were never satisfied. You even went into debt buying the things they wanted and they would to be happy for a short while but then it was back to wanting something else. The stuff you gave them accumulated leaving you with the task of taking care of it or cleaning around it, a constant reminder of your foolishness.

Was this relationship worth the effort? Was it satisfying? Are you still in it?

Was and is this relationship with yourself? If so then isn’t never too late to redefine it and begin again. Hopefully you can do this with a little understanding and compassion for yourself, otherwise seek professional help.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something you are keeping “just in case”.

Eco Tip for the Day

Instead of shopping go for a walk with a friend, a swim at the beach or take in a movie.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

How much clutter do you have in your home that’s purpose is convenience. There is no doubt that much of the clutter that enters our homes does so under the guise of adding convenience to our daily lives. Items that supposedly save us time, and in some cases actually do, but end up taking up a lot of space and possibly just making us a little lazy.

Here are a list of things that I came up with. Some of which I happily live without, others I soon will and others I won’t be parting with.

• Laundry trolley:~ I don’t have one of these. I decluttered mine in preference for the extra exercise of lifting and bending. Also I chose a folding bag to take my clothes to the clothes line because a plastic basket was too bulky in my small laundry.
• A Clothes Dryer:~ Some folks couldn’t do without one of these because of climactic conditions or housing style. While for many people, who live in the sort of climate I live in, these really are just a convenience. Either to save them hanging out the washing or for when wet weather does set in. In times of extended wet weather a quick trip to a laundromat occasionally would suffice. Neither my mother, mother-in-law or sister have one. I have a washer dryer combo machine so I have the best of both worlds ~ a dryer when I need it and no wasted space.
• Stepping stool:~ I have two of these from when I lived in America. One was for upstairs and one down. Now I keep one inside and one in the garage. Handy for getting into, not too, high places. I have offered one to my son, which I will remind him to take the next time he is at my house. Having just one will mean I get a little extra exercise taking it from one place to the other.
• Dishes:~ I have enough dishes so that I can have plenty to fill the dishwasher but have leftovers to use while it is operating. Right now the dishwasher is on the fritz and I am finding I require fewer dishes because the dirty ones end up back in the cupboard sooner. Standing at the sink doing the dishes by hand is once again a little more movement in my day. However I am still pretty keen for the dishwasher to be repaired.
• Dishwasher:~ Despite my last statement this is definitely a convenience item. Out of 26 years of marriage I have had a dishwasher for twelve. I managed quite well without it in those other years. And needed less dishes.
• Vehicles:~ My husband and I have two vehicles. One motorbike that he rides to work most days (big fuel saving there) and one small car which generally doesn’t get driven much except on the weekends. Do we need both vehicles, no, not really. However it would make the most sense to keep the car because the motorbike is not a good choice for my husband to commute 30kms to work on the rainy days. The reality is that having both isn’t just a convenience but also saves fuel and therefore money. Even taking into account the extra insurance and licensing. With one less vehicle I would have to walk just a little more and or take the bus occasionally.
• Extra Supplies:~ It used to seem convenient for me to have spares of some things waiting in the wings for the moment they were needed. Shampoo, conditioner, other toiletries, pantry items, craft items, paper towel… It occurred to me at one point that all of this was unnecessary. The shops are close enough and running out of any of them was not going to cause life as we know it to come to an end. So I stopped stocking them and allowed the stores to do it for me.
• Tools:~ I used to have in indoor tool kit so I didn’t need to go out to the garage to collect tools to do quick little jobs around the house. When my son moved out recently I gave him the indoor set to take with him. And you guessed it, the extra exercise to go out to the garage is good for me.
• Trash cans in all rooms:~ One again how hard is it to take trash from a bedroom and into a nearby bathroom or the kitchen. Not hard at all.
• Stuff on benches:~ If your cupboards and drawers aren’t full of spares and excess there will be room in them to store your everyday things within easy reach. Make-up, toiletries, hair brushes, kitchen gadgets, stationery items… This will clear the horizontal surfaces of clutter making them much sweeter on the eyes. A tiny bit of extra effort opening a door and maybe bending a little won’t do you any harm.

These are just a few examples of convenience clutter that I could come up with on a quick walk around my house and a little memory searching. With so much already gone from my home I dare say I have missed mentioning many “convenience” items that were once cluttering up my home. If you are concerned with all the extra exercise I mentioned against many of the examples above then consider this ~ A little extra exercise can only be good for you, but may be equaled or even surpassed by the reduction in effort required to clean your home with all that clutter out of the way.

Give this concept some thought the next time you are deciding should something stay or should it go. Can you think of anything in your home that might be convenience clutter that you could happy live without.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something you only keep in your home for those rare visitors that drop by maybe once or twice a year. They can always bring their own or do without. ~ Hair dryer, spare toothbrush, a variety of soap, talcum powder, more linen and towels than necessary…

Eco Tip for the Day

Spend a week only driving your car when necessary. Plan your trips to cover more than one task. See how much fuel you save. You might be surprised how often you go out in your car for quick trips that you really shouldn’t need to. Perhaps this will be inspiration to continue with this was of driving.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

 

Cindy

“Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: ‘I’m saving food!’ Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: ‘I’m saving my life!'”

– George Carlin, comedian

I just finished reading the book The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn. Briefly, Kathleen is a former restaurant and food critic who earns a degree at Le Cordon Bleu. One evening, back in the United States, she is grocery shopping and starts following a woman who is filling her cart only with highly processed, packaged foods including roast beef dinners, macaroni and cheese, and just-add-water scalloped potatoes. She finally strikes up a conversation with the women and hears the confession that the woman does not know how to cook, at all. From this, Kathleen gets the idea to open the Kitchen Counter Cooking School: She finds nine women who all confess to not knowing how to cook, and she trains them over the course of several months. Along the way, Kathleen talks about food politics, food waste, processed foods, sustainability, as well as how to wield a knife and other kitchen basics.

The sections on food waste caught my eye as it relates to clutter. Please bear with me as I quote some big sections of the book.

“Even as we bemoan food prices, American consumers are generally unaware that they spend less of their wages on food than any other country in the world; just under 10 percent of their paychecks. Compare that to 1900, when 40 percent of wages went toward food. Around 1960, the first time the amount spent on food was no longer the biggest expenditure, the figure was about 25 percent. The declining cost comes with the rise of the industrialization of farming practices and the shift of everything we eat – from pigs and cows to orange juice – into mass produced merchandise.”

“Perhaps it’s the lack of investment that leads to a cavalier attitude toward food. We may give thanks for the bounty once a year [Thanksgiving in the US], but then as a country we collectively waste about 40 percent of the food produced for consumption the rest of the time. Anthropologist Timothy Jones spent more than a decade studying food waste. His research finds that some crops sit abandoned or unharvested in the fields where they’re grown. Supermarkets or suppliers discard another few percent dismissed as too imperfect for retail. The rest – about 25 to 30 percent – we throw away at home. That food goes into landfills to rot, where it emits clouds of methane, a greenhouse gas more toxic and damaging than carbon monoxide.

” ‘By treating edibles as a disposable commodity, we teach our children not to value food,’ says Jonathan Bloom… He puts the figure on what we waste at more than $100 billion annually. This jived with what I found in the interviews with the volunteers and the kitchen visits [to her student’s homes before the lessons began] and what I observed in my own house and in the homes of friends. A few of the volunteers agreed to keep a journal of what they bought, ate, and threw out for two week. The result? They reported less waste due to the guilt they felt knowing they had to write it down, but even then, an average of 18 percent of their grocery bills went into the trash.

“But why do we waste so much? Both Jones and Bloom offer some interesting insights.

“First people often shop for the life they aspire to, not their real one. [Aspirational clutter!] Everyone knows that they’re supposed to eat fruit and vegetables, so we stock up on perishables. Since most people don’t plan meals for the week, those beets or greens that looked so great at the farmers’ market sit untouched as we end up eating convenience foods. [Impulse purchases!] With proper planning, buying in bulk or loading up on two-for-one deals can be a genuine money saver; without a plan, it’s just a recipe for double or triple the amount of food tossed away.

“Dr. Trubek from the University of Vermont has studied the activities of home cooks for years… ‘Planning menus is the greatest skill that we’ve collectively lost,’ she said. ‘That, and what to do with leftovers.’

Various chefs and food experts offer their ideas on how to eliminate food waste:

• Participate in an “eating down the fridge” challenge where you avoid buying groceries for a week and intentionally eat down your pantry and refrigerator.  [Use it up challenge!]
• Put a photo you like at the back of your refrigerator. Your fridge shouldn’t be so full that you can’t see it.
• Use up old products first, which is known as rotation in the restaurant world.
• Buy a realistic amount of produce. In our family, when I buy bananas, I just get four, not an entire bunch. Pears go bad quickly, and I usually buy only two of those – a half for each person.
• Especially in the United States and Europe, you can let the grocery store be your pantry: There will be more bananas  pears, cereal, flank steak next time you shop. Just because you can buy something doesn’t mean that you should.
• Don’t be afraid to substitute. If  you need a zucchini for a recipe but only have a green pepper, use that instead. No Panko? Use regular bread crumbs as a substitute. [Use it up challenge!]
• Don’t give up too easily on your food. Peel away the dent or the brown spot rather than throwing the whole thing away.
• Bought too much? Try IQF, individually quick frozen. Spread the extra berries or veggies on a baking sheet and freeze them. When frozen, sweep them into a plastic bag. (And don’t forget to use them!)
• Clean our your condiment shelf by taking some similar flavors and combine them into a marinade. There are sites on the web that will help you to know what flavors work well with what if you’re struggling with this idea. Here’s one possible helper.
• Soup is the great user of all-things-leftover.
• Don’t try to reinvent the culinary wheel for every meal. Develop a stable of recipes that you enjoy and know how to make, and lean on those for the majority of your meals.
• Take leftovers to work and pack them in your kid’s lunches.

On a different note, thank you to everyone who searched the Internet for the blog post I was looking for. It was found on Small Notebook, and here it is.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from your pantry that isn’t healthy for you even though most people stock it. The best way to avoid unhealthy food is to not keep it in your home. ~ Examples:- White sugar, pasta, sweet sauces, white rice, white flours, candy…

Eco Tip for the Day

 No need for a tip today as there are plenty in Cindy’s post above.

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

Today’s mini mission is to declutter something because it requires dusting and you don’t like it all that much anyway. Have you ever considered how much time you spend cleaning things in your home that aren’t even necessary to your happiness or survival. Or perhaps you avoid this task until the dust is causing hay-fever, someone is coming to visit and it looks embarrassing or the humidity is turning that seemingly innocent dust into a breeding ground for mould or mildew. Or perhaps you don’t even realise that this dust could be causing health problems.

My son’s bedroom used to be a huge dust collector. Needless to say I often made a lackadaisical effort of cleaning this space. I didn’t want to deal with the difficulty factor of cleaning it properly. There were various reasons why this job kept getting relegated to the too hard basket.

Firstly he had a large desk in his room which caused bad placement of his other furniture. His bed was placed in a corner and over a window. Making it difficult to change the sheets and flip the mattress. And also the window sill was half covered by the bed head making it difficult to dust. Also only about two metres of his skirting boards were exposed for dusting and only about one third of his carpet was accessible to vacuum.

My Son’s Room

This large desk, intended for him to execute his university art assignments, was mostly covered with numerous dust collecting sentimental items making it an enormous task to keep it dust free and tidy.

Then there were the two guitars resting on their stands in the corner and a small ottoman he had a habit of “hanging’ his half soiled clothing on.

All and all this was an uninspiring room to entice me to keep clean. As a result quite often I would  wipe down the skirting boards I could see, change the sheets, run the vacuum over the carpet I could get at, and walk away. I would perhaps once a month make a bigger effort but only out of sufferance. Less often I would insist the desk be cleared off so I could give everything a good dusting. Usually at the end of a school term.

My difficulties with this room were somewhat unavoidable simply because he needed the furniture that was in it. Also it is his room, his domain, and I felt that he was entitled to adorn it with what ever personal items he liked. A mother often doesn’t get much say in how tidy a 21 year old keeps his room either. One can merely guide not force. Well my son has moved out now and you should see his room. In fact you can in the photo below. It is vacant except for a bed.

My Son’s Room Now

Do you have a room in your home that is too hard to keep clean because of the clutter collecting dust, resting on dust collecting furniture that isn’t necessary, which covers walls, floor and skirting boards that rarely see the light of day that could do with a good clean. Do you really need or want all this stuff getting in the way of a clean and tidy home or is it just there out of habit. Give it some serious thought because as I mentioned above it may be less harmless than it appears.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something because it requires dusting and you don’t like it all that much anyway

Eco Tip for the Day

Embrace your real hair colour, even if it’s grey. The environment could do without all those nasty chemicals and wasted water going down the drain in an attempt for you to be something other than the beautiful creature nature made you.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Several people have recently asked me how to begin decluttering, and someone confessed last week that she thought all of us were running to the thrift store every single day as we decluttered, so I decided that it was time for another review.

Where Colleen and I started from

For those of you who are newer readers, you may not know that Colleen and I started our decluttering journeys from very different places. (And we didn’t know each other then, either.) Colleen’s house was well organized and very tidy, but she realized that she simply had way too much stuff. Her children were in their late teens when she began.

I moved into our current house with a two year old, and I was pregnant with my second child. The house never got fully organized. In addition, we did a lot of work on the house, so some area was always disrupted. When we finished all the work, the house looked fantastic, and I didn’t want the junk that was everywhere to make my beautiful house look ugly and cluttered. The inside of most cabinets were organized, but every surface was covered and there were laundry baskets of miscellaneous all over the house. By this time, I had one child in elementary school and one child in middle school.

What are your decluttering goals?

Different people declutter with a different goal in mind. Colleen thought she had too much stuff. I wanted my house to look nice, to be able to use my furniture and surfaces as intended, and I wanted to not be embarrassed to have guests.

Categories of clutter

Different people will have different sorts of clutter. I’m sure we all have a few toiletries we need to use up, some medicines that have expired, too many gadgets in the kitchen, some clothes we never wear. I think our trouble areas, however, are more specific to our interests, our psychology, and our personalities. Here are the main categories of clutter for all the members of my family:

Me – All sorts of household miscellanies, things I kept putting off making decisions about, craft supplies, office supplies, toys and games, books.

My husband – Books and papers leftover from college, books in his field (computers) that are now hopelessly outdated, hundreds of career-related magazines, electronic this-and-that, accumulated garage items.

The girls – Clothes and toys that they outgrew, art supplies, all sorts of tiny things that girls like to collect, unwanted birthday and Christmas gifts, art.

Some things you might have – Clothes, impulse purchases, decorative collectibles, books, magazines, newspapers, items you inherited, gadgets, excess food in your pantry or freezer, hobby items, crafts supplies, furniture, gardening tools and planters, stationery, incomplete projects, things that might be useful “someday”, love letters and photos that hurt you, souvenirs, things you have identified to declutter but haven’t actually gotten rid of.

How to begin

Beginning is usually easy once you decide to do it. You probably have an area that’s been bothering you. Take one thing from that area, put it in your discard box. Do not get it back out. Hurrah! You’re on your way.

Over time, you’ll find things that you would like to sell or need to give back to a friend, items that are harder for you to discard or need more thought. In the beginning, skip those and go for the low hanging fruit. You’ll make more progress and feel better about your accomplishments that way.

You’re on your way!

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you really need an alarm clock when your cell phone can carry out this task. Consider decluttering it.

Eco Tip for the Day

When packing items you have sold on eBay use recycled packaging materials when possible. I get used product boxes from my local hardware store.

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

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.

This week’s mini missions address items that you may not have considered decluttering in the past. You may not even consider the idea when you see what they are, but I thought I would make the suggestion anyway and allow you to give them some thought. I have to say that the only one I could consider is Thursday’s mission because I no longer have any of the other items mentioned. With all of these items you could instigate a trial separation where you don’t use them for a month and see how you cope.

Monday – Consider decluttering your home phone. Do you really need a static phone as well as a mobile for each person in the household?

Tuesday – Consider decluttering your second television or the third one if you have that many. Let’s face it how much time do we really need to waste sitting around watching TV or videos.

Wednesday – Do you really need an alarm clock when your cell phone can carry out this task. Consider decluttering it.

Thursday – Declutter a piece of furniture, especially if its only purpose is to hold items that need dusting.  Hopefully your previous decluttering efforts might have freed up such a piece by now.

Friday – Declutter a filing cabinet. Once you have decluttered your accumulated paperwork and have become realistic about what you really need to retain in the future, perhaps decluttering your filing cabinet, or at least downsizing to one with less drawers, would make sense. The lack of excess filing space may encourage you to stay on top of the paper clutter in the future, having no place to store it out of sight out of mind.

Saturday – I have mentioned this next item before but not often. Consider decluttering your second fridge or freezer. I know that some people use theirs for economic purchasing reasons but if that is not the case do you really need it. Many second fridges in Australia are used almost purely for storing beer and soft-drinks (soda), neither of which are good for you when consumed in large quantities and/or too frequently.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

Tips on avoiding false eco friendly labelling from www.greenbeings.com.au/

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

After reading the title of today’s post you are probably eagerly awaiting an explanation. I am going to attempt to keep it brief because I have a somewhat related topic I would like your opinion on before I sign off today.

What Redundancy or Destruction relates to is this:-

The less we own ~ be that reducing what we already have or minimising what comes in ~ the more likely it is that we will wear things out (Destruction) rather than them becoming useless to us (Redundant).

This is especially so for items of clothing, both for adults and for children. Recently Lena commented that she has so few clothes these days that things are wearing out faster. That could sound like the clothes aren’t well made but what Lena clearly meant was that the clothes are being worn far more often because there are so few in circulation, that they are naturally wearing out sooner.

The beauty of this method is that you get to replace items with something new and exciting, guilt free, because they simply need replacing. This satisfies the need to buy something new and pretty occasionally, keeping your wardrobe fresh and up to date, so to speak. One of the other advantages is that should you gain or lose a little weight over time your wardrobe will be replaced by natural progression over that period without you ending up with two sets of clothes. Ones that fit and ones that don’t.

The situation is slightly different for children, because they require a bit more in their rotation since they tend to be somewhat messier. However it makes possibly even more sense to apply this logic to their wardrobes being as outgrowing their clothes is inevitable, not simply due to poor food choices.

This same inevitability applies to all sorts of items that we can stand to have a few less of in rotation. Items that might perish rather than wear out or run out such as, pens, food, toiletries… This doesn’t only make economical sense it is also the environmentally friendly approach.

* * * * * * *

The somewhat related topic I mentioned earlier:-

I have had a post sitting idle as a draft which I have been advised not to publish. It is not finished but the theme is sensitive. However this same theme just keeps popping up all over the place for me lately and I am seriously considering taking the chance that I won’t offend too many people and just let the post out there. The topic in question is the connection between clutter and being overweight.

Having never been overweight myself, writing such a post could be construed two ways. One ~ “What do you (meaning me) know about being overweight if you never have been”. Two ~ “You (meaning me) ought to have something helpful to say on this topic because you must be doing something right as you have never been overweight.”

I have been offered a blog post from one of our readers on this subject. I am currently reading Peter Walsh’s book ~ Does this clutter make my but look fat. Also I have very recently stumbled upon two other blogs that have suggested this is an area of our lives that could do with habit changing.

So I put it too you here and now to let me know if you think this is a subject that you would like me to at least touch on once. Or do you think I should just leave this alone and allow my readers to deal with their household clutter first. I have noticed that many people who get their clutter under control also begin to form better habits in this area also.

Please give me your honest opinion as to whether you think this is something I should write about. I am happy either way so please don’t just say what you think I want to hear. 

Today’s Mini Mission

Go through your children’s clothing and assess what is worn out, no longer fits, is not useful to hand down to another of your children or be kept for another child should you be planning of having another one soon. Declutter what you will not need.

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t be a princess. Clothes can be worn twice, towels don’t need to be laundered everyday, misshapen fruit tastes the same as the pretty stuff, as does the food in dented tins and crinkled boxes. You might be surprised how much power, water and perfectly good food is wasted by being so picky.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

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.

This week the mini missions are based around things that perish when not used for a long time. So even if you think you “might need these things someday” it may turn out the someday is too far away and the items will only be good for the garbage can by the time you get around to using them. Best that you limit the number when purchasing certain things, pass on the things you have too many off that are likely to perish and just accept the fact that some of the things you reduce in number now will just have to be replaced later.

Monday – Today I suggest you do a pen round-up. All pens have ink that can dry up over time so it is best to limit the number you keep on hand. Donate the excess to your local school, take them to your workplace to use them up or offer them to friends or family who might be running short. Even your local post office or bank, whose pens go walk-about on a regular basis, might appreciate your generosity.

Tuesday – Anything with elastic. In my underwear drawers there are always those couple of old bras, pairs of knickers, socks and stockings that only get used on the rare occasion that the ones I prefer to wear run out. On more than one occasion I have encountered the problem that these spare pairs are no longer useable because the elastic has perished during their lack of use. I have found the same problem in my sewing kit, the stationery drawer (rubber bands) and even among the sports gear (swimming goggles, elasticised shin pads, support bandages). So with elastic it is truly a case of use it or lose it.

Wednesday – Food. This one is a no-brainer really. Even less perishable food has some sort of used by date. So if you have something in the pantry or freezer that hasn’t been used in a long time find a recipe to use it up on. You never know you might just stumble upon a recipe that will end up in your regular rotation this way.

Thursday – Fabrics. Any item made from light coloured fabric that have been used against your body at some point can be prone to yellowing from the body acids that aren’t completely washed out during the laundering process. Old wedding dresses are a fine example of this. The acids can even perish the fabrics and weaken them. I also find that old sheets that haven’t been used can get quite a rancid smell about them when not washed regularly. So declutter old clothes that you have worn before but now never use and if you have an over abundance of sheets in your linen closet make sure you rotate them on a regular basis.

Friday – Electrical appliances. Like anything else on this list these items will wear out from being used but at least then you will have gotten your money’s worth out of them. Having left electrical items in storage when we moved to America and then coming home to find they no longer worked I know for sure that it is a reality the they don’t like sitting idle for too long.

This hand cream has been around for a little too long I feel. I will use it up as a lubricant when shaving my legs.

Saturday – Make-up and medicines (pills, ointments, antiseptic etc). Both these items are made from substances that perish over time. Although medicines will usually have a used by date some cosmetic don’t. Either way you need to do a regular declutter of, what is or what you believe to be, out of date products in your medicine cabinet, your first-aid box and your make-up kit. (Read here for advice on used by dates for make-up)

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

Choose products to use and use them up before replacing them with something else. Unless of course you are allergic or they are having some other detrimental effect. Waste is waste no matter what form it comes in and having too much variety on hand is a sure fire way of things getting perished and require throwing out.

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