Recreational shopping, I wish it was an oxymoron like – unbiased opinion or seriously funny- but unfortunately it’s not. As the title suggests, people do approach shopping as a form of recreation. Sadly, having disposable income isn’t always considered a necessity in the pursuit of such entertainment. Hence the abysmal levels of credit card debt in the Western world. Although I can’t claim to be innocent of taking part in the past, I can honestly say that I did not contribute to the credit card debt statistics. Never the less, it is something I am not proud of and I am glad I learnt to be a more responsible shopper.

Shopping is one of those temporary feel good activities, like  over eating or drug use, whose high does not last long enough to outweigh the cost. The subsequent problems only perpetuate more grief.  The habit of over shopping, whether you just like new stuff or to self medicate against life’s other disappointment, is a fool’s game. Why…

1. No sooner do you have that new item than the novelty wears off and you just want more.
2. Credit card debt is only going to add to your problems if you don’t have the cash to pay for these highs.
3. Even if you can afford this habit, no amount of possessions will ever replace emotional deficiencies in your life.
4. If you start to rely on shopping as your main form of recreation then there is a good chance you are ignoring other much healthier and worthwhile pursuits.
5. Whether you are happy to ignore the environment or not, everything you  buy is placing a strain on the planet’s natural resources.
6. Even if the natural resources were infinite, the pollution involved in producing these products is not good for you or the environment.

If you think you have fallen victim of this insidious modern day scourge please consider replacing it with a more productive activity. I would suggest a regular exercise routine or sport, a hobby or volunteering your time to help others. All of these activities are a much more valuable use of your time.

P.S. Thank you Bobbi for suggesting this post topic.

ITEM 290 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Another of my husband’s computer games to be donated. He decided that this item wasn’t just wasting space but also his precious time.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Spending the day with my parents yesterday.
2. Comments from my readers – I haven’t had the time to read yet but I am looking forward to doing so tomorrow.
3. No weekend work shift for the first time in three years.
4. A $7.90 train ticket that used to cost 2o something dollars – Score one for encouraging people to use public transport.
5. Everything I have learnt in the last ten months about pointless shopping.

Today’s post is a follow in from yesterday elaborating on vanity the offshoot of pride.

I have wanted to write this post since half way through my recent vacation. All those people lugging those huge suitcases on and off trains, planes and automobiles all, I can only guess, in the name of vanity. As I have mentioned before my husband and I managed our entire one month vacation with one half empty backpack each weighing about 12 pound. So I can only assume that those other couples were carrying a lot of stuff they just didn’t need.

How much of your clutter can you contribute to vanity? You know the items in your home that serve to 1.) Remind you and others of your achivements 2.) Enhance your attractiveness to others. I have made a list of items below that come under one of both of these headings.

Souvenirs – Quite often these are pointless nick naks that only serve to collect dust and waste space in our homes. If we are to be honest we place these items on display so that any person entering our home might see them and are envious of the places we have been. We rarely look at them ourselves and think “yes that was a really good vacation”.

I have seen cars where the rear window is so cluttered with stickers of the places its occupants have been that they could barely see out when reversing. Why do they find it necessary to advertise?

I have done it myself with a piece of jewelry I have that when people say – “Isn’t that a lovely necklace?” I have proudly answered – “Yes, I got it in Venice”. How obnoxious.

Beauty products – this one of course belongs in the second category mentioned above. Why do we continue to waste our hard earned dollars on face creams, make-up etc all in the hope of disguising the beautiful people we are. Sure we all have visual flaws we would rather cover up but how much effort and expense does that cost us each day. Couldn’t we get by with a little tinted moisturizer, a lipstick, mascara and a brow pencil? Do we really need fifteen different shades of eye shadow, two different bronzers, a separate face cream for morning, noon and night, six shades of lipstick…need I go on.

Be who you are, know when enough is enough and only use enough products to enhance your natural beauty. The beauty we should be most concerned about is the beauty within that should outshine anything on the outside. No amount of product is going to make you attractive to others if you have lost your inner beauty to vanity.

Fashion Items – This one belongs in both categories. Above all else clothing should be practical and comfortable. It is best to find the styles to suit your particular type of beauty and go with that. Following the latest trend whether it suits our shape or complexion is wardrobe clutter in the making and usually not at all flattering.

Sure we want to look nice and presentable on all occasions but let’s face it we don’t need to spend a fortune on designer clothes in order to achieve that.  That kind of extravagance is akin to those souvenirs I spoke of earlier only worn to impress whether they suit us or not or whether we can really afford it or not. High prices don’t always mean better quality either.

Trophies – I have spoken about this one before because I have a shelf full of them that my husband thinks we should keep but I think are just a boast from ancient history. The newest one is ten years old and the oldest probably dates back to when I was 15 (30 years ago). What do they achieve? To tell people that I was good at something once and they should all know about it.

Am I proud of those achievements? Pride is a funny thing really isn’t it, should I be proud or just thankful that I stumbled upon a sport that I was reasonably successful at due to the physical talents I was born with? You will never perform well at anything that you don’t have the natural physical or mental capacity to achieve in. So when you do achieve is that something to be proud of or something to be grateful for?

Think about these things when you separate your clutter from the things that you are keeping and ask yourself why. Why do I feel I need to keep this item and why do I acquire such items in the first place. Sometimes decluttering requires a bit of soul searching as does being consumer conscious in the first place.

ITEM 283 OF 365 LESS THINGS

One or two of these were souvenirs I had collected years ago the others were golf prizes of my grandmother. I hate cleaning silver and I won’t forget my grandmother if I don’t own these so they are going in the donation box. Maybe they will find a home with someone who will appreciate them.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Someone to cuddle when I have bad dreams.
2. Spices – I like my food to bite back.
3. Eyeglasses – I just took mine off to clean them and couldn’t read a thing in this screen without them.
4. Good friends – ones who don’t mind that you have to cancel the dinner date you made with them at the last minute because you still can’t talk.
5. My life – Because some people don’t even know where their next meal is coming from or when it will be.
   

Pride     Envy    Gluttony   Lust    Anger    Greed   Sloth

If loosely translated you could associate five of the seven deadly sins to clutter. This may seem a bit like hitting below the belt but sometimes that’s what it takes to make people realize the error of their ways.

Pride – otherwise known as vanity is a sure trigger to the collection of numerous unnecessary items. How many things do we buy just because we want others to see how trendy, clever, sporty, rich, beautiful… that we are. We don’t use these things in the privacy of our own home, we just want the world to see we own them. Let me give you some examples – Prada/Coach/Guess handbags, the latest apple iPhone, updated sport equipment, expensive jewellery, and trendy clothes. Not one of these things is a necessity and soon enough is no longer “cool” either and out we trot to update, leaving the previous items to languish in a cupboard somewhere.

Envy – How often do you see that person I spoke of above sporting the latest and greatest and feel that nasty thing called jealousy rare its ugly head? So out you go and follow suit buying the same things to keep up with the Joneses whether you can afford it or not. This is a direct route to a house full of guilt clutter and huge credit card debt.

Lust – although truly related to lust of the body there is no doubt you could also draw a parallel between that and lusting after the pretty, shiny, trendy, latest and greatest products available on the market. Shopping certainly satisfies a desire to make yourself feel good even if like any carnal act the satisfaction doesn’t last long before you are out there again seeking more of the same.

Greed – the desire for material wealth and gain pretty much speaks for itself. It is really just a combination of all of the above.  No matter how much we have we always want more.

Sloth – the avoidance of physical or spiritual work. This is a two part sin that once overcome can be our salvation. First of all, once we have accumulated all that stuff to satisfy the other four weaknesses, we become too lazy to deal with it. These possessions start to pile up around us and we are either paralyzed by our guilt or just can’t be bothered to do what needs doing to move them on, and before you know it you are drowning in a sea of stuff. We have neglected to work on our spiritual or mental wealth and given in to desires that won’t sustain us in the long term.

Fortunately, there is a cure. If you take the time to do the spiritual or mental work required to rid yourself of the desire to constantly have more, keep up with the Joneses and be something you are not then you will find you no longer need all these material substitutes for true satisfaction in life. Discover the things in your life that are dragging you down and substitute them for things more spiritually or mentally satisfying. Maybe it is your career, a relationship or physical neglect that you are not happy with. It isn’t always easy to identify or solve the problem but it is certainly worth the effort to try and the benefits when you succeed.

ITEM 282 OF 365LESS THINGS

The last of the travel keepsake clutter has gone into the recycling bin.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. The lessons I have learned from this decluttering experience – without them I would still be making the same wasteful mistakes.
2. Email, text messaging and blogging – because when you have lost your voice you can still communicate.
3. My husband – he likes to be the knight in shining armor.
4. The gift of hearing – all I can hear right now is my computer whirring, my fingers tapping the keys and the clock ticking but I still know what a gift my hearing is.
5. Bird song – I especially love to hear the magpies warbling and the kookaburras laughing.

More of the local flora from my walk last week

Family Birthday Parties without Clutter

A guest post by Cindy Bogard

On Day 209, Colleen wrote about having a clutter-free birthday for her 19 year old son. For those of you with younger kids who thought, “Sure, that worked for her; he’s 19 after all,” this post is for you. My daughters are 8 and 10 (just beginning 3^rd and 5^th grades), and I’m here to tell you it is possible to reduce their birthday haul without reducing their birthday happiness.

First of all, if you’re going to make any drastic changes to the way things have been, you need to prep your kids in advance. With my girls, the preliminary conversation was easy and began naturally. My eldest daughter’s birthday is right before Christmas, and we had celebrated her birthday at her Grandmother’s house. At the end of the evening, we packed up her gifts into a box and brought them home. Over Spring Break (March), I realized that the box was still sitting in my daughter’s room, largely untouched. That began the conversation about how much we enjoy receiving gifts – much more, usually, than we actually enjoy the gifts themselves.

What Colleen did for  her son, and what every birthday person enjoys, is feeling like the king or queen of the day. I have few memories of any particular gifts I’ve received, but I have great memories of parties and special dinners that were thrown in my honor. You child is no different.

This year when my daughter turned 8, I had been decluttering for 2 months, and clutter had become part of the flow of family conversation, which included my husband, my children, and my mother. I did have to send an email about it to my in-laws, and they were much more receptive than I would have guessed. (I’ve been trying to trim down gift giving for as long as I’ve been a part of their family, so they can’t have been too surprised.)

My daughter received a necklace holder made for her by her Dad, several pieces of jewelry, a lucky bamboo plant in a special container, and a rosebush for her garden – that’s it for gifts from her parents, sister, Godfather, and two sets of grandparents. (As an aside, I have to brag that my husband made the necklace holder only out of items he found in the garage – a decluttering project in and of itself –  and when she hung her necklaces on them, my daughter decided that she was through with two of them and that they could go to the thrift store.)

Where’s the part where she was the Queen of the Day? Her birthday was on Sunday this year, and she ruled from Friday night through Sunday evening. On Friday, we had a family birthday dinner where she selected the menu and opened gifts from other family members. On Sunday, she received a blessing at church, and I took her picture with the rector afterwards. She opened one gift before church and one gift after church. We watch a DVD and have pizza every Sunday, but as a birthday treat we went out to dinner and saw a movie at a theater instead. In between, every time we said prayers from Friday through Sunday, we said an extra thank you for her.

These things, I believe, are the memories that she will retain, long after any games or trinkets she might have received would have broken or been passed along to younger children.

ITEM 252 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Another craft ebay sale once again not a very lucrative one only $5.00 again.

Coupon and Gift Card Management

Even though I never encourage anyone to shop needlessly here at 365lessthings there are always things that one needs and has to shop for. Quite often you can make some great savings by using store and manufacturer coupons. And there are always those gift cards that we so often receive that need to be used up. Cindy has been kind enough to write a post with her method of keeping her coupons and gift cards organized and easy to access. Here is what she had to say…

A guest post by Cindy Bogard

I don’t clip a lot of grocery coupons. When I get the circular for Costco, I tear out the coupons for the items I’ll buy and hang them on the refrigerator behind my grocery list. When I go to Costco, I grab the coupons too. That’s the end of my grocery coupon management.

What I do have a lot of is gift cards, merchandise credits, frequent buyer reward coupons, and discount coupons that I’ve purchased through businesses like groupon.com.

On the advice of a friend who owns an organizing business, I purchased a plastic envelope for a dollar. (Mine is from The Container Store.) It’s pretty big – about 7×5 inches – but not thick, and I put all my coupons, gift cards, etc. into it. On the front of the stack, I keep a running tally of everything in the envelope: store name, amount, and the expiration date. I carry it in my purse all the time, so I’m never waiting to check out and then want to slap my head because the envelope is in the car. Since I have to pull out the envelope to get the coupon, it’s easy to update the tally right there at the register, before I leave the store.

If the coupon is one I really want to make sure I use, not only do I put it in my envelope, I also make a notation in my calendar a week before the coupon expires. A simple “Petco, 10% off, exp. 8/18” is all I need to keep me on track.

I’m not crazy about gift cards or merchandise credits; I feel like they’re a bit of a trap – you have to spend $X (and probably a little more) in order to use up the card. I’ve tried to fight this feeling with generosity: If there’s only a small amount left on the card but the store won’t return the overage in cash and I don’t shop there frequently, I take the card, smile sweetly, turn to the person behind me in line, and offer it to them. There’s often a momentary look of confusion followed by a big grin. It’s a way of spreading the love, and it didn’t cost me a thing.

ITEM 249 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This one is going I am not sure how yet but it is going.

Today I want to draw your attention to a web site that I discovered thanks to Stephanie who writes a blog called Renouncement . I first met Stephanie through a comment she left on my blog back in Day 208 and I featured her blog on Day 210. As always I went over to Stephanie’s blog to check it out as I always do when someone new leaves a comment. On her About Me page she had listed among her favour books one called Not So Big House. Being the curious little munchkin I am I was intrigued and had to check it out. So I did what all computer savvy folk do and googled it and found this interesting web site…

www.notsobighouse.com

Below is the intro from the front page of this site

The Not So Big House books by Sarah Susanka bring to light a new way of thinking about what makes a place feel like home—characteristics that many people desire of their homes and their lives, but haven’t known how to verbalize.

How big is Not So Big? Not So Big doesn’t mean small. It means not as big as you thought you needed. But as a rule of thumb, a Not So Big House is approximately a third smaller than your original goal but about the same price as your original budget. The magic is that although the house is smaller in square footage, it actually feels much bigger.

What a wonderful idea someone actually designing homes that make sense  functionally are aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly. Even though these homes as still not small they are designed to entice people into building smaller and leaving a smaller footprint on the planet. What a wonderful idea. Please go over and take a look at this website especially if you are planning to build or renovate.

ITEM 248 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Finally the last of hubby’s clothes

Recluttering

A Guest Post by Cindy Bogard

It’s bound to happen sometime; you’re going to have to break down and buy something. Before you do, consider these factors:

1. Do I need it?
2. Do I want it?
3. Did I come into the store looking for this item, or did it just catch my eye?
4. Would I be criticized if my spouse or family members knew that I had purchased this?
5. Can I afford it? If I cannot pay for it now, should I buy it?
6. Can I wait a week and see if I still believe I need to buy this?
7. I am buying it “just to try it”? If I am, is there some other way that I could try it first?
8. Can I borrow it or rent it instead?
9. Can I buy it used?
10. Can I share the purchase of this item with someone else? (Lawn tools, exercise equipment, a bicycle, or magazine subscriptions all fall into this category.)
11. Have I researched this purchase? Is this item durable and does it do the things I want?
12. Will this item be easy use, maintain, and keep organized? Does this item perform more than one function?
13. Do I have something at home that will perform the same function? Will it replace one or more other things that I already have? Am I willing to move those other things along? Do I truly need to replace those things?
14. Do I have a place to store this item? Do I know that it fits?
15. Is it in a color or style that I will continue to enjoy? Does it fit with my décor or the other things in my wardrobe?
16. What is it made of? Where was it made? Are the components healthy for me and the environment? Is it labeled for recycling? Is it made of recycled parts?
17. Can I sell it when I no longer want it?

ITEM 244 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These are almost too cute to part with

ONE

Yes that’s right ONE. That is all you really need. Having said that, I own more than one handbag myself. I actually have three but I only ever use one. Maybe it is time I decluttered the other two. I used the other two bags more often before I needed prescription glasses but they are not big enough to hold the case. One of the reasons why I stick with just one bag is because I just can’t be bothered moving the items I keep in there all the time from one bag to another.

I don’t like to carry a big bag because like every other space the bigger it is the more you fill it up with needless stuff. The one I use all the time is actually ready for the bin. Its handle fell off some months back and I have been holding it on with a safety spring hook (You know, like a climber would use. You never know I might find myself in a “MacGyver” situation one day and that hook will save my life. LOL). That said, this old bag suits my needs really well and that isn’t easy to find so I will continue to use it for as long as it will hold together.

I know some of you lovely readers are probably thinking “you must be mad, get a life”, but the question was “how many handbags does one woman need” and the answer is one. All extra bags are just an extravagant fashion statement really. We are all allowed our one little weaknesses though I suppose.

Thank you to Angelina for sending in that question and inspiring this post.

For more on handbags check out Day 97 Handbag Clutter.

ITEM 230 OF 365LESSTHINGS

I believe these shot glasses have been in my possession since my grandmother died so that is 29 years to add to the weeks clutter years tally which is now 43 years.

There is an election going on at the moment here in Australia. The politicians often jump on the environmental bandwagon to win votes. The issues they promise they are going to address when they win are just a drop in the bucket to what really needs doing.

In fact they aren’t prepared to do much at all when it comes to the manufacturing of pointless garbage like…

• the free toys in kids meals and other promotional products
• wasteful single use gadgets
• shoddy appliances that don’t last and can’t be repaired
• Disposable cutlery & plates
• Cheap souvenirs
• The sheer quantity of seasonal decorations
• Gas guzzling cars
• And the over-packaging of most of the above

just to name a few.

Generating manufacturing creates economic wealth and employment regardless of how unnecessary the end resulting items are.  So no politician is going to put a stop to any of that. So we will just keep on causing massive pollution until the supply and demand of these products are eliminated. The only thing that is going to have an effect on this is you the consumer.

Supply and demand is just that. If we stop demanding (buying) it they will stop supplying it. It is really that simple. No manufacturer is going to make something that no one is buying. Supply will always be limited to demand and even if that just reduces the quantities supplied it would be a great improvement for the environment.

Think twice about what you are doing with your money and your actions.

• Don’t accept free useless stuff just because it is free
• Avoid using plastic utensils when you are eating out.
• Take a carry bag with you when you go shopping so you don’t have to accept plastic bags
• When buying a new car buy what you need not some gas guzzling monstrosity just because it looks cool
• Use the same decorations year in year out. It is possible to celebrate an occasion without polluting the planet.
• You can julienne vegetables, crush garlic, chop an onion, dice an apple, slice potatoes… with just one gadget, a knife. Sure it might take longer but unless you are running a restaurant kitchen will the time saved really make that much difference.

See what you can do this week to reduce supply and demand. I will keep a track of my efforts and let you know next Sunday how I went.

ITEM 214 OF 365 LESS THINGS

You can sell just about anything on ebay. This item made a nice $14.00.

I happened upon a conversation at my work this week where one of the ladies was talking about getting money from petty cash to buy a new kettle for the lunch room. The old kettle still works quite well but due to who knows what in the water the inside of the kettle goes quite black over time.

This new kettle buying has gone on in the past in fact I rescued the last kettle from it’s certain demise with the simple hint that I am about to share with you. Clearly word had not got around that I knew the secret of cleaning the kettle. I find this very odd because as you might have guessed by now, I am quite opinionated, hate waste and am not adverse to notifying everyone of any small piece of brilliance I possess.

So here was my opportunity to shine once again! I informed the person involved that I have the power to solve this problem. I am sure she thought I was quite “full of it” and didn’t believe me for one minute but was prepared to be amazed. And amaze her I did.

As luck would have it I had brought a lemon into work that very day to give to her (but that is a whole other story which I won’t bore you with)  so I cut off a slice threw it in the kettle, filled it up with water and put it on to boil. At first I thought it wasn’t going to work and I was going to look like a prize idiot but I don’t give up that easy. I left it there to soak and came back a while later and sure enough a gleaming white kettle was what greeted my eye.

Of course I gloated well over my brilliance to everyone prepared to listen so hopefully the next time the kettle gets to this state everyone will know how to fix it and won’t rush out to replace it.

I may have embellished this story to my detriment but that was just a bit of fun. Really I am very pleased to have saved that kettle from the trash and avoided one more notch in the belt of unnecessary supply and demand.

ITEM 213 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These game used baseball bats fetched $90 on eBay