Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

My husband and I were in Sunday School (religous education) recently, and the speaker touched on the topic of the Christian calendar (the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, etc.) that mark the Liturgical (Church)Year. He pointed out that we used to have two main classes of holidays: Holy Days and Patriotic Days. Thus, in the United States, our seasons would be marked by celebrations such as Independence Day and Presidents’ Day, as well as by religious holidays.

Over time, days such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Valentine’s Day got added into this mix.  More recently, days exclusively for shopping have become holiday-like and deserving of their own names such as “Cyber Monday” (the best deals on-line), “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving and the beginning of the American “Christmas shopping season” and similar to Boxing Day in the UK and Australia.) (You can read more about Black Friday and decluttering here.)

So, is holiday shopping a new phenomena, exclusive to our hyper consumer-oriented culture? It turns out that the answer is: Not so much.

According to Wikipedia, the purpose of the first U.S. Mother’s Days, held in the early 1900s, was to reunited families that had been divided by the American Civil War and were celebrated in church – a combination of patriotic and religious holidays – and mothers wore a white carnation.  However “in part due to the shortage of white carnations, and in part due to the efforts to expand the sales of more types of flowers in Mother’s Day, the florists promoted wearing a red carnation if your mother was living, or a white one if she was dead; this was tirelessly promoted until it made its way into the popular observations at churches.”

Father’s Day was initiated just two years after Mother’s Day, originally in observance of a mining disaster in which many men were killed. It did take longer for it to be officially recognized by Congress – according to Wikipedia because Congress was afraid of it becoming too commercialized!  However, merchandise sales were an important part of the holiday from the beginning. “The Associated Men’s Wear Retailers formed a National Father’s Day Committee in New York City in the 1930s, which was renamed in 1938 to National Council for the Promotion of Father’s Day and incorporated several other trade groups. This council had the goals of legitimizing the holiday in the mind of the people and managing the holiday as a commercial event in a more systematic way, in order to boost the sales during the holiday.”

What did I learn from my research? That the promotion of holidays and shopping is as old as the holidays itself. Yes, I am sure that the intensity of the advertising and promotion has increased. Yes, a diamond necklace for Mother’s Day is a far site different than a white or red carnation, but the association of holidays, religious and secular, with shopping is as old as the holidays itself.

Today’s Declutter Item

Just one more stationary item that has been sitting around unused and needs to be out of here. Another thing for the thrift shop box.

Things that made me happy, made me laugh, made me feel grateful, fascinated me or I thought were just plain awesome.

• Tissues with aloe vera ~ I have had a bad case of hay-fever today but my aloe vera tissues are kinder to my nose that others I have tried.
• A hot cup of tea ~ This is a must when hay-fever is wearing you down.
• That there are no wars in my country ~ I wish there were none anywhere but unfortunately that is not the case.
• Some days it is enough to be just grateful that the day is done and I can sit back and relax for a while. Today is one of those days.
• People who go out of their way to be helpful.

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

In the spirit of giving at Christmas I have compiled a list of non cluttering gift ideas. This list can also be used throughout the year for birthdays and other gift giving occasions. I have cut and pasted a list I compiled back on Day 199 and added some more ideas. If you have any other great ideas to add to the list I will be happy to include them and then make a page out of it that we can refer back when ever we feel the need. So get those good idea to me via a comment I am looking forward to your contributions.

Edible Treats

• Chocolate/Candy
• Cake (provide a cake for someone’s happy occasion)
• Baskets of
  • Fruit (what could be more colorful or healthy than that)
  • Cookies
  • Groceries
  • Treats (candy, nuts, crackers etc)
• Bottle of wine / 6 pack of Boutique Beer…
• A home cooked meal is always a treat for a special occasion
• Home made treats like jam, cookies, pickles etc
• Take them out to dinner/lunch/ breakfast etc

Gift Certificate

• Dining Out – coffee shop, restaurants etc
• Hardware
• Groceries
• Spa Treatments
  • Manicure
  • Pedicure
  • Massage
  • Hair cut/colour
  • Facial
• Travel Vouchers
  • Flight
  • Bus
  • Train
  • Motel
  • Even just a local train or bus pass so they don’t have to pay for their commute for a week or so

Donations

• Give a donation to their/your favourite charity in the name of the gift recipient
• Donate your time to help out a charity on their behalf

Time

• Spend quality time together
• Do a favour that will save someone precious time
  • ironing sessions *
  • see also Automotive
  • house cleaning chores *
  • Child minding *
  • see also Garden below
• Recharge a prepaid cell phone for more communication time
• Instead of sending a gift make a visit to someone far away as their Christmas gift.

Garden

• Plants/cuttings/seedlings/flowers
• Doing some gardening for them
• Mowing their lawn *
• Prune bushes *
• Water the garden in dry weather or while they are away *

Automotive

• Wash and detail the car *
• Pay for a tank of gas or give them a gas gift card
• Pay for a car service *
• Take and pay for the cars next emissions test *

Friends

• Arrange a get together with a group of friends
• Bring two old friends together

Entertainment

• Buy tickets to a show/event/movie
• Take them out to a show/event/movie
• iPod downloads
• Video store gift certificate
• Theme park tickets or annual pass

Other

• Good old fashion cash
• Pay a bill for someone*
  • Electricity
  • Gas
  • phone
  • A weeks rent
• Flowers
• Gym membership
• A calendar (Most people use one and you get a whole years use out of it before it requires recycling)

Note:- For ideas with * beside them – If the time is not right immediately to follow through on this gift make up a voucher and give to to the person in a card. Make sure you follow throw when the time comes.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is to just be there for the special day.

Item 343 of 365 less things

A collector plate that my mum gave me when I was living in America. It was nice to see the Australian wild flowers on it when I was so far from home but now I only have to go outside. So I don’t need it any more and it has been sold on eBay

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. That I made the effort to go for a walk today- I have found far to many excuses not to bother walking lately and it is starting to show on my waste line. I think my frame of mind has been better today for making that effort and from getting some fresh air and sunshine.
   
2. A friend calling to have a coffee with me today – Between hospitals, medical appointments and family it has been hard to get away.
3. Libraries – I like being able to borrow books and magazines, it saves me money because I don’t have to buy them and I give them back when I am done so they don’t become clutter.
4. A smaller ironing pile – I am not sure what has changed in our home but the ironing pile seems to be much smaller these days. I think it was from Steve decluttering his wardrobe of a lot of collared shirts.
5. Leftovers – They are so convenient when you suddenly have to drop someone off somewhere when you should be cooking dinner.
   

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

Cindy Bogard’s Weekly Post

There is a group of Canadian Mennonites who, along with AdBusters, promotes a Buy Nothing Christmas www.buynothingChristmas.org. While my family will not be having a Buy Nothing Christmas, we will be having a Buy Not A Lot Christmas. Each year, I’ve tried to cut back, usually with only moderate success. One memorable year, the kids got so overwhelmed by the number of gifts that we had to take a break from opening them. Good grief! Can you say “enough already!”

This year Christmas comes very close to my half-year of decluttering anniversary. Having looked so carefully at each and every one of the more than 1,200 things I’ve decluttered, I can say for sure that I have very little interest in purchasing.

The girls, too, have been decluttering with me every step of the way. They very much acknowledge that most of the gifts they’ve received have really not been as fun, interesting, or welcomed as anticipated. The amount of books, craft kits, and art supplies that have been shifted out of their rooms and into other homes is remarkable.

In addition to Christmas gift-giving, Clara’s birthday and her first diabetes diagnosis anniversary are the week before Christmas. While I try to look on her diagnosis day as “the day her life was saved” not “the day the wheels came off the bus,” there’s no denying that it has been earthshaking and deserves some sort of special acknowledgement.

So what will we be giving and getting this year?

Audra wants a kitten and, shhhhh, Santa is going to bring her one. Her other gifts will be cat-related items. However, in the true one-item-in, one-item-out tradition, one of the guinea pigs has found a new home at the girls’ school, and I’m trying to find a home for the other one. (Yahoo! This could be a two-for-one!)

Clara desperately wants her ears pierced. She will turn 11 in December, and she’s always been told that she could not get her ears pierced until she turned 13. As I said before, her birthday and diagnosis day are close together, and I figure that since she pokes herself to test her blood sugar at least 10 times a day, she can handle two more pokes.  I’ve invited her three closest friends and their mothers to meet us at the mall on the anniversary of her diabetes diagnosis, and we will all go to the earring store to watch her get her ears pierced. Then I’ll treat everyone to lunch. I think this will truly be a memory for a lifetime, just like Audra’s kitten. For Christmas, I’ll get her some earrings and let someone else get her the books and calligraphy set she’s asked for.

With my parents, we have a completely practical gift-giving strategy. Everyone is encouraged to say exactly what they’d like for Christmas, and if you describe its precise location in the store, that’s not going too far. (“Home Depot, aisle 14, bottom shelf, left hand side. It’s $34.99 on sale for the next week” is not too much detail.)

My husband’s family (four adults and one toddler) is a bit more of a wild card. I have finally realized that I can’t control them, I can only control myself. (It only took me a dozen years of trying to manage their gift giving for me to come to this fairly obvious conclusion.) All of us are blessed with plenty of income and the ability to buy everything we need and most things we want. What that means is that I will be informing them what sort of gifts we’ll be giving by sending an email that finalizes our visiting plans and states, “As in years past, the girls will be buying a gift for (the baby), and we will be making charitable donations for the adults.” (Hmm, I think that might need a little work, but you get the idea.) In return, I will ask for a donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (www.jdrf.org) or a gift certificate to my favorite store Amazon.com.  What they do with that information has to be up to them.

Will you be having a Buy Nothing Holiday?

Item 342 of 365 less things

A cable that we received free with one of those fancy schmancy calculators that the kids required in high school. The calculator was used but the cable never was.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Not only remembering to go to the supermarket on the way home from the airport but getting everything I went there for – I have been a bit of an airhead lately.
2. Steve remembering to get the lawn mowing man his Christmas carton of beer while he was at our house today.
3. An afternoon nap – I had a headache all day and needed some relief. Those new cushions came in really handy.
   
4. A great response to today’s (yesterday’s now) post – I had a amusing time reading about the odd things people have as clutter/precious possessions.
5. Lovely soft fresh bread
   

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

As I have mentioned before I do a bit of paper-craft.  For one reason or another over time I have accumulated a stockpile of handmade and shop bought greeting cards which take up valuable space in my craft area, an area that I really do need to downsize in.

With fear of continuing my scrooge reputation that I established in my Day 86 blog I am now going to tell you how I intend to minimise this greeting cards situation.

1. First of all I am not going to buy any new cards no matter what.
2. If I don’t have an appropriate card for the situation I will adapt a card I already have.
3. I will try to remember to send everyone on my birthday calendar a card this year (Quite often I forget).
4. I have a card organizer that I will set the cards up in  so I am less likely to forget.

I am quite confident in the fact that the people I care about will be happy just to get a card and that I don’t need to go out looking for “just the perfect” card  in order for them to be pleased to hear from me.

Today’s giveaway

While looking in the linen closet to determine whether there were any old towels I could throw away my attention was drawn to some rolls of gift wrap and a box of gift bags. Which got me thinking about the chest full of other gift wrap paraphernalia in the closet down stairs

Now you may think what I am about to suggest is strange but I will explain my thinking as we go along.

I rarely buy gifts (This is strange to most people). I live a long way from most of my family, postage costs are ridiculous and they all can pretty much afford to buy anything they would want anyway, as can I.

Not to mention the fact that I am embarking on this lifestyle change of de-materialising and not bowing to the continual bombardment of the retail industry insisting my life would be so much richer with this product or that.

So I pulled the chest out of the closet and started to sort out the gift bows that have already been recycled several time during past Christmases and threw away all the ones that looked like they had been recycled too many time already. This reduced the number enough so that I could empty the chest into a small  drawer in the guest bedroom.

As we have been selling a number of items on eBay lately and have run out of brown paper to wrap boxes in for mailing I have decided  I will turn the gift wrap inside-out and use the white side for wrapping boxes  the next time I need to mail something. I have plenty of new and used gift bags I can use for any occasion when I might need them in the future.

I transferred my children’s keepsakes into the lovely chest I had emptied therefore eliminating one more box out of the shoe cupboard.

As a result of this exercise I have de-cluttered, recycled, re-designated (I love to live outside the box) and reshuffled creating a little more space.

I would just like you to know that my family and friends understand that gift buying  is not necessary to a loving relationship. My family would prefer I spent my money on the travel to come and visit them and my friends would rather enjoy a day together going to the movies,  having a meal together or something of that nature. I am not a complete scrouge.

Oh! By the way, I am going to a wedding this weekend and the couple, who have been living together for a few years, have the good sense to have a “Wishing Well” so people give money as the gift and they don’t end up with a house full of unneeded clutter.

These are the bows that found their way to the garbage today.

Lets face it, how much does one really need oven mitts to match the season or tea-towels or aprons or door mats for that matter. All these things are purely designed for wasting peoples money. I know you are probably thinking “Bah Humbug”  but really, isn’t Christmas supposed to be a religious holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus not a retail sell  fest to empty our pockets. I just hope someone gave me these oven mitts and that I didn’t waste money on them myself, either way they are doing into the donation box.