I found this clever shopping deterrent strategy when reading my comments yesterday and I thought I would share it with you.

Here is what Jacquie, who was inspired by Gogol’s buy it back approach, had to say…

Along the same lines as Gogol, if I am thinking of buying something new, I use an ‘earning money’ analogy.
I use a basic hourly rate and say to myself “If I had to work for (how ever many hours to earn the cost of the item) and at the end all I was given was this item – do I like it enough or want it badly enough to do that? Often the answer is no.

I can now use the same formula for uncluttering along with Gogol’s idea – if I had to buy it back from the pawn shop with that many hours work, would I? I don’t think I would for much of my stuff.

I must admit I run this scenario through my head occasionally too. Especially when it comes to paying for a service that I can just as easily with a bit of effort do myself. Why pay someone $20 an hour to do your ironing if you only earn $16 an hour in your day job. You would be better off cutting your work back by a couple of hours and do your own ironing.

Maybe we should also think about the paltry some of money paid to the sweat shop workers who make most of the stuff we clutter up our lives with while they are barely about to put a meal on their plates. I suppose the flip side to that is that then they won’t have a job at all, but maybe just maybe if enough of us stopped messing up the world with all this consumerism we might just change the world and the general focus may turn to something more productive. Who knows?

ITEM 202 OF 365 LESS THINGS

A piece of Australian History sold on eBay for $15.50

Below I have listed some alternatives to clutter gifts. By clutter gifts I mean anything that is not consumable or an act of service that will remain in your home after it is has been used.

Edible Treats

• Chocolate/Candy
• Cake (provide a cake for someones happy occasion)
• Fruit basket (what could be more colorful or healthy than that)
• Bottle of wine / 6 pack of Boutique Beer…
• A home cooked meal is always a treat for a special occasion
• A cookie basket
• Take them out to dinner/lunch/ breakfast etc

Gift Certificate

• Dining Out
• Hardware
• Groceries
• Spa Treatments
• Travel Vouchers
• Personal promise to do some household chores

Donations

• Give a donation to 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
• Take care to someones children so they can have quality time with their significant other
• Recharge a prepaid cell phone for more communication time

Garden

• Plants/cuttings/seedlings/flowers
• Doing some gardening for them
• Mowing their lawn
• Prune bushes

Friends

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

Entertainment

• Buy tickets to a show/event
• Take them out to a show/event
• Ipod downloads

If you have some ideas, and I am sure there are many I haved listed here, please leave a comment and I will add your suggestions to the Uncluttered Gifts Page I have created so that we can all refer back to easily in the future.

ITEM 199 OF 365 LESS THINGS

If you do take someone to an event as a gift please discourage this souvenir clutter

For a long time now my husband and I have kept track of our savings and spending using budgeting programs on our computer. We record pretty much every cent we spend so we know where the money is going.

Recently we bought a new Apple Mac Mini so our old software is no longer compatible. We downloaded and tried out a couple of free software programs but have not been to happy with the performance of these. I have been persevering with one anyway just so we can keep track of things as usual but after today we have decided that we really don’t need to do this any more.

There are two reasons for this. One is that we have now paid off our home loan so we don’t need to keep track. Nor do we need to keep track our spending so much either since not having a home loan means we have a lot more disposable income. But the best reason is that today when I was inputting and balancing our spending against the online banking statement I noticed that there was very little to keep track of any more.

The input went a bit like this…

groceries, groceries, groceries, groceries,auto (gas/petrol), groceries, groceries, groceries, groceries,auto (gas/petrol), groceries, groceries, groceries, groceries,auto (gas/petrol).

As you can see, we really don’t do a lot of shopping these days except to buy groceries or fill up the car and motorbike. The bit of cash that goes in my wallet usually goes on having coffee with friends, more groceries and hand outs to our son for school supplies and other incidentals.

Most other things we buy replace an old favourite, so there isn’t any clutter coming into our house to take the place of the stuff heading out the door. This is the key to staying decluttered and it also means we have more savings to spend on the things that are more important to us like:

• A nice meal out together occasionally
• Travel
• Being able to get the car serviced without having to worry where the money is coming from
• If any unexpected medical expenses crop up we have nothing to worry about except our health

I am sure there are many more things but these are the few that jump into my head immediately.

With that accomplished the next target is to get my husband semi-retired by the time he turns fifty.

ITEM 184 OF 365 LESS THINGS

More personal clutter ready for the recycling bin

Today’s word is…

C O N S I D E R A T E

Show respect for yourself, your fellow human beings and the environment…

Be CONSIDERATE when shopping

• Constantly buying items you do not need puts a strain on the world’s resources.

Be CONSIDERATE to the environment

• To process resources to produce the items we buy puts a strain on the environment. Also the more we own the more space we need to store these items the bigger the footprint we leave on this planet.

Be CONSIDERATE to family

• In order to purchase un-necessary items requires money that has to be earned. The more you buy the harder you have to work to provide the money for those excesses. That time working is time not spent with your family.

Be CONSIDERATE to those left behind

• Nobody lives for ever and there is always someone who has to take care of  the things left behind when we leave this world. This passing is sad enough on our loved ones without the added stress of sorting through excess possessions.

Be CONSIDERATE to those less fortunate than you

• Donate your excess items to a charity so they can help others who are less fortunate than you. Better still instead of buying un-necessary items make a cash donation to a charity it will help others and you will feel good about yourself as well.

I know I have been guilty in the past of not being considerate of all of these things but I vow to be better than this now and in the future.

ITEM 178 OF 365 LESS THINGS

My husband used this sheep skin on his motorbike seat but that was years ago

There are so many things that we keep on standby just in case we might need them. Things that take up an incredible amount of precious space in our homes. I have been giving this problem a bit of thought lately and have come up with a solution which is the word for today…

B O R R O W

Lets say your sister is coming to visit and she has three kids but you only have one spare queen bed. The Sister and one child can sleep in that bed but where are the other two to sleep. Rather than have spare bedding crammed into cupboards and basements you could borrow a mattress and blankets from a friend or neighbour. Often these people are not only happy to give you what you need but they feel glad to be helpful.

I am sure this solution can be applied to many situations.

• I borrow DVDs from my neighbours all the time. It was their idea so I don’t feel like I am imposing. I collect their mail when they are away and they go away fairly often so it is a symbiotic relationship.
• My friends know I have the tools to fix their pieces of jewellery and I am happy to do repairs for them, in turn they do favours for me. This is a prime example of borrowing each others unique resources instead of everyone having to own rarely used equipment.
• One friend loves Self Help books so I borrow hers rather than buy my own because I don’t need book clutter in my home.
• When it comes to books you can always borrow from the Library as well.
• Sometimes it is another person’s time and assistance that you need to borrow. Like when your husband takes your car to work but you suddenly need a ride somewhere. There is usually a friend you can rely on to help. It is better to call on this lifeline occasionally than owning a second car that you don’t really need most of the time.
• Share resources with friends who have similar interests. If you and a friend have the same hobby like scrapbooking, share tools like shape punches, dye cutting machines, texture plates etc rather than buying duplicate items between you.

You will notice that in most of the example above there is a give and take theme. This two way generosity is the only way this plan can work because if you only take and do not give, people will soon stop helping because this is not a one way street.

I am sure there are no end to the variety of things that can be shared between friends and neighbours. Give it a thought the next time you consider purchasing an item you know you will rarely use. If you are uncomfortable with sharing then there are also places where you can hire certain items, furniture, white goods, tools etc. It is worth investigating.

ITEM 176 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I gave this one to a friend who had a use for it

My husband had a short business trip this week and I decided to go with him. We spent half a day travelling, enjoyed a leisurely lunch then spent the remainder of the day admiring the art at the National Galleries. It is nice to just wind down and enjoy each others company with no commitments or need for hurrying.

On the second day while he was attending his business conference I spent the day in the town centre of Canberra. I met my sister-in-law for lunch which was lovely but the rest of the time I spent just brousing around the shops.

I very soon discovered that I have very little or no interest in shopping any more and was really quite bored for most of the time. The only shop that really caught my eye was a local handmade crafts store at which I bought nothing but had a nice time checking out the handy work.

These days unless there is something specific I am on a mission to buy I have absolutely no interest what-so-ever in looking at mechandise I neither need nor admire. I feel liberated  both spiritually and financially. Decluttering your home is far more effective if there is little chance that it is just going to get filled up again with a fresh round of un-needed items.

I have found there are so many bonuses that I wasn’t expecting by doing this 365 day challenge. It has given me time to evolve and grow as a person as I have learned along the way not only from experience but from those who are on a similar journey like Joshua at Becoming Mininalist, contributers from over at Unclutter Forum, Megan at Sanity In Simplicity, leo at Zen Habits and many more. So thanks folks you have all been a great help as I hope I am being to others.

ITEM 148  OF 365 LESS THINGS

Another eBay item that sold for $20.00

From when I was quite a young child I was responsible for minor repairs to my own clothing even my school uniforms. This included  mending tasks such as sewing on buttons and stitching up  dropped hems.

My mother was a private dress maker who worked from home and I will always be grateful that she taught me to sew. I don’t use that skill to make clothes for myself or my family anymore but it is a skill that comes in very handy when an item of clothing needs repair.

I read an article this week from a woman who works in a thrift store who was astounded by the amount of clothing that comes through the store simply because people seem to have lost the skills or the will to do minor repairs. Hopefully these items are bought by someone willing to do the repair but at the same time the person who gave up this item of clothing would have gone out to a store buying a new item to take its place creating a supply and demand that the environment is struggling to keep up with.

In an attempt to help rectify this situation in my own small way today I am posting some links showing basic sewing skills and one that offers a large assortment of on-line sewing classes.

• How to sew a button
• How-to-turn-up-trousers
• E Sewing Workshop

You may wonder what this has to do with decluttering. To me decluttering isn’t just about getting stuff out of my house it is about choosing wisely about what you put into your house in the first place and getting the maximum amount of use out of those items. If that requires me to do the odd repair job along the way then it is well worth the effort.

ITEM 144 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Software that sold on eBay for $20

One of the most important lessons I have learned since taking on this challenge of 365 less things is that resisting the temptation from retail assault is not a futile exercise, it can be done. As I have mentioned before I hardly ever go shopping anymore except to buy my groceries and I am fine with that in fact I feel that I have the upper hand in some kind of battle of wills.

I did have a little head start or incentive if you like before I made the conscious decision stop spending on things that might ultimately become clutter. After living in the United States for seven years, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay the prices that the same products command here in Australia so I had already cut back.

When we took on the decluttering challenge one of the rules we made for ourselves was that if something new came into the house something else had to leave.  Since we are already busy picking and choosing what stays and what goes we really don’t want to make any more work for ourselves.

We have however upgraded our computer (a half tower for a mac mini) replaced a big stereo system with a new iPod docking station and bought an iPod touch so we don’t have to lug a laptop around with us on our next vacation but that is about it for the shopping this year. Even though this sounds like a big outlay the purpose behind these purchases aside from keeping up with technology, was to downsize the amount of space the old items were taking up in our home or our backpacks.

I have not bought any clothes,  accessory items, books, useless knick knacks, craft supplies, even birthday cards (I am using up my stocks or making them myself) or numerous other things that I used to buy that I have already forgotten I ever wanted.  It is amazing to realize how easy the transition was and although my friends might all think I am a scrooge I am very happy with the situation and don’t plan on changing back (I will not be assimilated).

ITEM 135 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Another pair of ski pants sold on eBay for $19.50

Just thought I would share a little story about some cheap luggage we once owned and how we off-loaded it.

My mum bought us a set of luggage and the first time it did the cycle through the airport wheels fell off and things broke. We only used them one more time and that was as excess baggage when we moved to America. They then got stuck in a cupboard until the first unsuspecting visitors came over to stay with us.

Since America is a great place to shop the visitors had a lot more stuff to take home than their suitcases could carry  so we gave them one of our dodgy ones to take their excess stuff home in. After a couple more lots of visitors came and went we were rid of the entire set of luggage and went out and bought some better ones to replace them.

I have  a couple of tips I will share with you about buying luggage and this comes from experience.

1. Do your homework before buying new luggage and buy a brand that has a good reputation of producing quality product.
   
2. Don’t buy suitcases that when full of clothes will weigh more than the standard baggage allowance per case unless you like paying the excess weight fee.

ITEM 118 OF 365 LESS THINGS

With air travel in mind this remote control chopper is today’s offering to the 365  things I hope the little boy I gave it to has lots of fun with it.

Following on from yesterday’s post there are always those gadgets in our homes that were made for one use but when you explore the possibilities there are so many other fuctions they can perform.

For Example, we own a coffee grinder, nothing unusual about that except that when I bought this item I sellected one that had a detatchable grinding bowl. The idea behind this function is to make it easy to clean but the reason I wanted this feature was so I could purchase a spare grinding bowl that I could use it to grind spices to make my own spice blends for cooking curries etc. I thought it was advisable to have a separate bowl for this so the strong spice favours wouldn’t taint the flavour of the coffee.

I have since found several other uses for this extra bowl such as whipping  small quantities of cream, making bread crumbs and grinding nuts for a cake recipe. I am sure that I will discover many more uses as time goes by but already I am very happy with the functionality of the object.

If anyone out there has a similar story of a gadget they have found an “outside box” use for I would love to hear about it so I can share it with my readers and maybe we might all learn to get more use out of some of the items we own and possibly eliminate the need for other items that only duplicate the same function.

ITEM 112 OF 365 LESS THINGS

As I am clearly not about to part with my coffee grinder this pair of GP boots is today’s contribution to the 365 less things