Mohamed Tohami over at Midway Simplicity has begun another interview project ~The Midway Decluttering Show. His most recent guess was a wonderful lady with a shining personality and very wise on the subject of decluttering. OK you caught me  blowing my own trumpet again. 😉 Here is the link to the interview so you can judge for yourself.

The Lazy Person’s Way To Declutter Your Home

Tohami has also recently released his new book Midway Simplicity ~ Easy solutions to simplify your time, health, things, finances and relationships. This book contains excerpts of all the interviews from the Midway Simplicity Show. Below is the excerpt of the interview he did with yours truly.

Simplify Your Time

“Fill your time with something you enjoy”

I think with time, the key is it has to be filled with something, unlike closets that don’t have to be full all the time. With time, you’ve got to be doing something in that space. It might as well be something you enjoy and something you get satisfaction out of. My journey to de-clutter has freed up a lot of my time to do just that.

I had a dead-end, awful job when I first started de-cluttering. I feel I was able to really give that up because I wasn’t wasting money on things I didn’t need and didn’t particularly want anymore. So I just gave that away and spend my time blogging and helping other people and that’s certainly very satisfying.

Simplify Your Health

“Decrease the things you’re doing wrong”

I think when it comes to health, the easiest way to improve is to give up the things that are just not good for you – smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and all those things. They’re not hard to give up. Like my approach to de-cluttering, you don’t have to go cold turkey. You can give them up slowly. Just decrease the things you are doing wrong a little at a time. That makes it a little more doable, I think. Giving up over several months has to be better than not giving up at all.

Simplify Your Things

“Make it easy”

I think the easiest thing, the thing that for some reason came to me out of the blue, is don’t make it difficult on yourself. You don’t have to do it in a month. You don’t have to do it in a week. You don’t have to do it in a year. Just do it as you feel comfortable. My plan to begin with was just to make it easy. It wasn’t until I started moving further into reading about minimalism and that sort of thing that I realized I had moved into a whole new area of growth where I let go of more and more things.

I think if you use the slow, simple approach, you’ll learn a lot more from it, and you’ll get a lot more out of it. You won’t just find out you’re back to square one in six month’s time.

There are always things in your house that stand out which you don’t want anymore – things you just haven’t got around to removing. Start on the easy things you can part with, not the sentimental things, not the tasks that do take more time. Start on the easy stuff. Then the further down the track you go, the more ruthless you get, and the more you’re prepared to part with.

Simplify Your Finances

“Only use credit cards in case of emergency”

The simplest thing I think you can do when it comes to finances is not use credit. If you can avoid credit cards especially for things you don’t need, don’t use them. When we were first married, we didn’t have a lot of money. We had a credit card, but we only ever used it in case of emergency – if the car broke down or that sort of thing.

Don’t buying things you don’t need unless you can afford to pay cash for them. Like I said, just save credit cards for emergencies. If you’re paying interest, then you’re using it more than what you should. A credit card, to me, is something that I use so that I can pay bills online or use for emergencies, but not to be used willy-nilly buying a pretty dress and a pair of nice shoes. That’s where the problem starts. Suddenly, you need some cash and you have maxed that credit card, and then you’re paying big interests. The problem just snowballs.

Also, if you can fix things yourself, don’t pay someone to do that for you. Take some classes, even in learning to sew or whatever, so that you can do stuff yourself. The less money you’re throwing away, the more you have to spend on the things you enjoy in the long run.

Simplify Your Relationships

“Avoid people you don’t like”

I must admit I don’t have a lot of problems with relationships. I seem to attract people to me who are good to be around, for some unknown reason. But maybe that’s because I unconsciously keep it simple. If I don’t like people, I just avoid them.

Of course, you cannot avoid everyone in your life, but it doesn’t mean you’ve got to waste your time socializing with them. They are there for a reason; stick to that reason and don’t let anything they say get you down.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Do a quick declutter of your children’s toys. There are often broken ones, ones they no longer enjoy to play with or ones they have simply grown to old for.

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.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

Remember back in October one of our fellow 365ers needed our advice on getting go of her clutter with eyes. Read about it here. Well this week she sent us and update that she wanted me to share with you all.

Here is what Chrissie had to say…

This is some update on my efforts concerning things with eyes. Feel free to publish if you like to. I am progressing! Not as fast as I wish to but anyway progress is visible – Especially today!

From all the comments of your readers I created little tutorial

Helpful actions

• Involve trusted friend or family member (my hubby and my Mom – I don’t like to share this topic with more people…)
• Start with least sentimental value (I started with a sorting and piled those which I definitely cannot let go and worked only on the remaining stuff)
• Give the items to a friend for disposal (good a idea, but as above, I will no involve more people an that embarassing topic)
• Don’t bring item into you house that have eyes (this is what I always sermonize on my on blog – best way to be free of clutter is avoiding new clutter)
• Paint over the faces to get rid of the eyes (no no no I could not make them blind! Ouch!)
• Keep only 1 box and the rest let go (this is exactly what I managed – I had 4 boxes with cuddly toys, no it is only 1!)
• Put them into a box and give them to charity (there are 2 critical boxes waiting for my approaches to charity, but this is not easy in Germany…)
• Check if you can give them to police, firefighter or pedriatic units who may solace children with them (this is as well option for the 2 waiting boxes)
• Give them to animal shelter (will keep that option in case charity will not work)
• Put them face down into kitchen bin and cover with dirt, e.g. tea bags (this I did with items I occasionally decluttered during last time, this very good idea prevents me from digging them out of the bin once again)
• Take photos (digitalization is good idea, but in fact I was surprised that there were almost no feelings towards the items that I did not put on the “must-stay-pile”. I took no photos, appart from what is attached to this little article)
• Do it all at once (different option vs. step-by-step – In fact I faced all the 4 high critical boxes on one day, but finally there left only some 20 items the house that were in too bad condition for anything)
• Put them quickly in the car and bring them away (YES! In fact I brought them to the Textil Container immediately although this is forbidden on Sundays…)

Helpful thoughts

• Beeing sad is ok, it shows that you have feeling which is not bad at all J
• Give them 2^nd chance to be loved
• They have fullfilled their purpose
• They don’t love you back
• They are from material like plastic, fake fur, etc only – it’s not living!

Yes indeed, I started with 4 critical boxes.

I devided all the content into 2 piles.

The must-stay-pile I reduced to the size of 1 box.

The let-go-pile I devided into bad condition and still usable

The bad condition items I put into plastic bags and brought them out of the house immediately

2 more boxes are now waiting for further purpose.

Inbetween I invited as well my Mom to review what I sorted out. She strongly adivsed me to put one more item into the must-stay-box (…) and took 2 other cuddly toys for decoration purpose back to her home.

That’s it so far!

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Find 10 minute to go through one hanging file in your filing cabinet. Just One! Shred and recycle the papers that need not be retained. The idea of doing the whole cabinet is likely to be paralysing in nature but one small section isn’t so daunting. Am I right? Perhaps next week you could do another small section ~ “rinse and repeat” ~ and before you know it the whole thing will be clutter free. I am using this method on my vast collection of photos.

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.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

We haven’t had a “What Am I?” Saturday for a while. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, what I do is post a fraction of a photo of my declutter item for the coming Monday and you get to try to guess what it is. So take a look at the photo below and leave a comment with your guess. There is no prize just the joy of being the first one to guess correctly.

What am I?

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter something toiletries related. That old aftershave that stings your face, old shaver handles that are excess to your needs or that extra toiletries bag you received on your last long haul business trip.

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.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

I received the following request for advice from a reader last week and decided to post it here for you all to give your opinion on. I have also included my advice for two reasons… 1. because you might find in helpful. and… 2.  my return email to this reader kept bouncing back to me so I was unable to help offline.

Here is what she wrote~

“…Laundry is my groundhog day & it’s really doing my & my husbands head in…. We have an 11 & 7 year old & I am sure that sometimes things go in the laundry basket rather than be put away – there are times I know I an rewashing clean clothes – but after a couple of days in the basket they have associated smells & so in they go…

I have started to think the only way, (which you might approve of) is to declutter the volume of clothes & options they have….. Do you have tips of what you did when your kids were young…

I have taught my daughter where the washing machine is & how it works but from her point of view I am sure she feels that she has no use for this information ! well not yet anyway… As working parents it’s overwhelming the sheer volume of washing that we are doing, & then once washing is done getting it folded & back to where it belongs is grinding. Any thoughts…. Is the answer always declutter ? Or can you help me out with this too. ps: I did think about putting a second tub in their room that’s the “it’s clean but I just couldn’t be bothered to put it away” tub – maybe, maybe……”

And her is my response ~

I think that you have answered your own question. It seems to me, from observation and experience, that people take possessions for granted the more of them they have. If, for example, there is always another outfit to put on when one hasn’t rehung or even used the last one that went in the wash then what incentive is there to be more mindful.

That being said, kids grow out of their clothes soon enough so maybe decluttering yours would be a waste of money unless they have clothes in their closets that are too small. Those I would get rid of immediately.

However from this point forward, as they grow into the next size, my suggestion is to reduce the number of outfits you supply them. On the lead up to this you can use the time to sit both of your children down and explain to them that they are going to have to be more thoughtful with their clothes in future because they are going to have fewer of them. Explain to them why this is without blaming, after all kids deserve an explanation and it may result in them being more willing to comply. Provide them with a system for hanging the things they can wear again, such as a small coat rack or a series of hooks. Explain to them that if they continue to wear things once or not at all and just toss it in the wash then they may run out of clothes to wear before the next wash day comes around (which will be less often than it does now).

The time it will take for their current clothes to dwindle, due to them growing out of them, will give you all time to adjust to the new routine. Your mission is to resist slaving in the laundry trying to keep up with them. Don’t pander to their desire to have whatever they want clean and ready for them at all times by constantly washing to keep up. They will soon learn that life just doesn’t work that way any more. Train them and remind them on a regular basis to wear, more than once, the clothes that aren’t visibly soiled or smelly. Underpants of course the exception to this rule.

You asked how I handled this with my kids and I would say that what I have written above just about covers it. They weren’t over supplied with clothes and they both had a little clothes rack to hang the items they could wear again. Admittedly they often hung their clothes on the floor under the clothes rack but kids will be kids. I must also admit that I probably trained them too well to reuse clothes because I often had to (and still do have to at times) remind them that some items have been worn long enough.

My son’s less than tidy room.

My son is the only one home now and he still has a habit of leaving his worn clothes on the floor until he is ready for them to be washed. If he is around on wash day I do ask him to toss, into the hall, what he wants washed. If he isn’t home I will make an executive decision. In a bid to save on water and electricity I only wash when I have a full load (black, white & lights, colours or neutrals).  However if specific items aren’t available when he wants to wear them then it is just too bad because washing individual items is simply out of the question.

Parenting isn’t an exact science and, as you can see from the photo on the right, I have not been successful in the long term at training my son to keep his room tidy or make his bed. The kids complied under duress when younger but once they reached a certain age I decided it wasn’t worth the continued grief. His is however the only untidy room in the house and the only time his bed is made is when I change his sheets but I can always close the door. I refuse however to behave as though I am running a laundry so it is either comply or go without.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday –   Declutter some old cleaning rags that have been used too many times already. Perhaps you could repurpose some of those linen items mentioned above into new rags. Personally I use microfibre and some of mine are getting very thread bare and therefore ineffective so will be tossed this week.

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.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It’s time for the change over of seasonal clothes and an opportunity for the simplest decluttering of all: Decluttering without even trying. When you get your clothes out of storage (or, in my case, when I stop using the lower hanging bar [hot weather] and start using the upper hanging bar [cool weather]), turn all the hangers backwards. At the end of the season, anything that is still turned around the wrong way is something you no long wear. Congratulations! You just decluttered your closet without even trying.

The Weekends Mini Missions

Saturday - Declutter something from your basement, attic or garage.

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.

My Gratitude List for This Week

• I am grateful for the book I just finished reading. (The Shack by William P Young)
• That my daughter is home.
• That my daughter has been cooking for me all week.
• That I learn new things everyday and hopefully am becoming a better person for it.
• I am grateful to be free to explore my own possibilities.

This week I received an email from Chrissie who has a unique decluttering issue that she would like her fellow 365ers and myself to give her advice on. Below is the message she sent explaining her issue.

“Although I’m quite successful in decluttering and drive my own project online ~einfach-weniger.blogspot (Simply Fewer in English) I’m lost as soon as things have eyes. No matter if cuddly toys from the childhood (they can be ugly as hell!), knick knacks, useless promo gifts, … as soon as they have eyes they are begging me to stay in my house. All available declutter strategies did not work so far. And please note that only small portion represent items that can be sold or given to charity. Most of items are old, ugly, used. I caught myself picking them out of the garbage once I managed to throw them away.” ~ Chrissie

So Chrissie here is my advice. I think you should get a trusted friend or family member to help you with this. Get together and choose maybe 5 of these items, the ones that you care for the least. Ones with the least sentimental value. Those promo items would be a good place to start. Give them to your friend to dispose of. She is not to put them aside at her house just in case you want them back, she is to dispose of them permanently as appropriate somewhere that you can’t retrieve them. With this method you not only have support, encouragement and rational assistance, there also is not turning back. No taking the items back out of the trash.

If you find you have dealt with this first attempt quite well do another batch. Hopefully over time you will desensitise yourself to this weakness when you realise that once the items are out of your home that you don’t give them much ,if any, thought.

Also, in future, just don’t bring items into your home that have eyes. It is possible to refuse promo gifts. Just explain politely that you are environmentally responsible and don’t accept items that you have no need for. This can apply to things without eyes as well.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter a gadget ~ Gadgets are so alluring but once acquired they often fall short of expectations. Get rid of one of those that has fallen short.

Sunday – On a trial basis ~ for now ~ Sunday will be 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.

This Week’s Gratitude List

1. Some lovely fine days.
2. Outings with friends including one of my readers Wendy F. Thanks for coming Wendy it was fun chatting with you.
3. Happening upon just the right box at the shop up the street to pack a skateboard deck in. It was so perfect for the job that there had to be some sort of divine intervention that lead me to it.
4. The opportunity to be creative. I have been making Christmas cards this week with the added bonus of using up papercrafting supplies.
5. My beautiful daughter passed her fitness test this week and will soon be a member of the Royal Australian Air Force. Congratulations baby girl you make us proud.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

I have been on a mission to declutter a bookcase filled with books, CDs, photos and anything else that could be stuffed in there plus a Balinese dresser full of DVD’s

Early September things took an unexpected turn, as a new tv entered the house. It wasn’t planned but not entirely unexpected either. Our small lounge housed an older type tv that has been with us for years and was a favorite perching spot for our cat. Unfortunately the countdown to the final digital changeover meant that we either needed to invest in a digital box and a different aerial because of our area, or consider an upgrade. My husband and I wandered into the department store to look at a smallish flat screen and left with a rather large flatscreen for more or less the same price of the small one. Go figure.

So what did a new tv mean for my mission? Well, my husband decided that he wanted the new tv in the formal lounge and the Balinese dresser out straight away, so the tv could be centred along the wall and the speakers set up properly which meant he also wanted lamp table in the corner out that night too. The original flat screen moved into our small lounge off the kitchen (known as the kid’s lounge) and the bookcase needed to be relocated, turning my mission topsy turvey.

The Balinese dresser has temporarily shifted into our dinning area and after a delay of two weeks we listed it on Trademe, by time this is read, the auction will be over.

The bookcase was relocated to the garage to a spot where a kid size bookcase sat with a small stereo on top of it and a pin board on the wall above it.

Dumped onto the middle of the garage floor are boxes of dvd’s, the displaced kid size bookcase, the lamp table, a box of ornaments which sat on the Balinese dresser and lamp table and our old tv and cabinet. And for some reason chaos attracts chaos and one of my daughters decided to deliver a box of stuff she wants to get rid of.

Straight away I felt like my garage had been invaded by an army of clutter and I felt strangely emotional about this. My garage used to be chock full of stuff with no possibility of the car ever seeing the inside. It took months and months to clear as I worked on the ceiling storage space above at the same time and I have been quite defensive of this hard-won territory.

By the next morning I realised something about myself. I had been so determined to keep the garage floor clear, it had actually been holding up my decluttering in general and indirectly this mammoth mission as well. While the garage was work-in-progress from January to June, I’d used the garage as my declutter-depot but since it had been cleared I didn’t want anything even temporarily located on my beautiful clear space but hadn’t come up with a replacement system for outgoing stuff. So I have told myself that sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war and have set up four boxes for my favourite charities such as Goodwill and the local Lionesses Club and as I fill the box I can drop it off.

If I’m going to have a clutter free clear zone, doesn’t it make more sense that it should be in our living areas rather than our garage? And since it continues to irritate me to see my garage with boxes of stuff in it again, shouldn’t I use that irritation to fuel action?

So the mammoth mission is still very much on, its just got a little out of order. The furniture items were to be the last things to leave in an orderly manner at the completion of controlled decluttering of items one at a time. The lamp table, kid size bookcase and the pinboard quickly left on freecycle. The TV and cabinet also went on freecycle to a guy who wanted a PS3/Xbox station for his kids in their rumpus room. I still have yet to re-house the ornaments but will address that next week.

Moni didn’t take a before shot but got one of her family to drawer this mock up for you all. Even though it isn’t a photo I think you will be able to appreciate the difference in the after photo below.

So 365’ers – has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation, where they suddenly found themselves with excess furniture or had a time limit to clear stuff out cut short?

Has anyone else found themselves defensive of space they have re-claimed from clutter?

I have talked about my declutter-depot where stuff goes to wait its transport from the house, does anyone else have a similar system? And if not, how do you run your outgoing goods?

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter something used for nourishing.

Sunday – Declutter something used as a covering.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

Here in the southern hemisphere we are heading towards Spring and I cannot wait for the days to get longer and the temperature a bit warmer. As we have trudged through Winter we have had our share of coughs and flu’s doing the grand circuit through the household. I am, as usual, the last person to go down with the flu and just back on my feet again after two days in bed. Of course, my husband is sure I (Moni) could not have had what he just had because he couldn’t get out of bed for five days whereas I (Moni) seemed to be able to roll out of bed to collect the girls from school and to deal with dinner and laundry. Surely, I must have something less severe. 🙄

So the medicine cabinet has seen a bit of action lately but I am rather pleased with the lower level of stock that we are managing on these days. In previous years our medicine cabinet has rivaled a Pharmacy (Drug Store in US) for the variety and quantities of over the counter meds we had – my annual decluttering of the medicine cabinet was a joy because everything had an expiry date which meant justifiable expulsion from the household. Earlier this year I noticed how many similar items could be found in our medicine cupboard and usually within 3-6 months of each for expiry date. Two lots of antihistamine, three lots of the identical headache/pain tablet, four lots of similar flu meds and so on and so on. I gave this some thought but couldn’t explain the phenomenon until eventually I caught myself in the act. My daughter was sent home from school with a head cold and I beelined for the Pharmacy on the way as I couldn’t recall if I had anything suitable at home already. This is how the fourth set of head cold meds entered the house to sit between an identical half empty packet and two other rival brands containing the same active ingredients.

My daughter is a rather logical thinker and was highly amused in a clogged up, watery eyed sort of way, and suggested I write a inventory of what we have and keep it on my iPod Touch since it goes everywhere with me now that I have discovered Notepad and “Things” app (my iPod is my training ground for an iPhone) . So I did so and included any extra details that were included on the packaging plus the expiry dates. From that day onwards – which fortunately was early Autumn – I have carried with me an inventory of medicines already in the house and thanks to a damp cold Winter and a lot of flu’s going around, a noteable reduction in our stock levels.

This method is working well for me, but it could be as simple as a piece of paper slipped into a pocket of my wallet. What I am doing is Decluttering 101 in that I am reducing the amount of incoming items and hopefully it will reduce the amount of medicines that I have to dispose of at expiry time.

What other clever ideas are there for managing the medicine cabinet?

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter a electric cable that serves no purpose.

Sunday – Declutter something made of paper.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

One of your fellow readers would like your opinion on something. Please read her message below and add your advice if you wish by leaving a comment for her. Thank you in advance for your help.

I have been on a mission to declutter my house. My house was never a disaster by any stretch of the imagination but in my opinion there was just too much stuff. It stresses me out. Since February I have been working though my possessions. I have removed clothing, nick-knacks, doubles of items, just general excess. I have removed more then 365 items and I am very proud of myself.

Recently I have started to tackle the toys. My house is a toy store, literally. There is not a toy at the store they we do not own a version of. I have two rooms specifically used as playrooms, one is a large basement. My friends tease me and strangers, like contractors make comments about the volume of playthings my two boys own. I did not buy most of them, they were gifts from my children’s very generous grandparents and other relatives. I know this has been discusses before but need some help and reassurances.

I am feeling very guilty about getting rid my children’s toys. My first two going are being sold on Sat and I feel like I want to cry, my stomach hurts. One of the toys being sold was never opened the other never played with. I choose these because there was no attachment to the toys for them or me. I figured they would be easy. Boy was I wrong. I think I feel guilty because these on some level are not mine to sell. But my boys are 5 and 1 not really old enough to understand or support my decluttering efforts.

I think I am also afraid that my disappearing toy act will cause them to become hoarders as adults. So, basically I just wanted to know if the readers here have any advice for mom with a guilty conscience. Thank you for your help.

Here is the advice I proffered to this reader while assuming that she was already taking steps to stop the plethora of toys coming in…

Involve your 5 year old in the decision making. Your 1 year old is clearly too young to care so won’t be affected either way. I always involved my kids and they never had any qualms about getting rid of the stuff they no longer played with. You will be teaching him a valuable lesson about letting go and not living a cluttered life.

You can give him two incentives to let go of things ~ 1. Tell him the cash earned from sold items will go into his bank account. Involve him in that process to a level he can understand. 2. Let him know that the toys he donates are going to children who wouldn’t otherwise have toys to play with. Children can be very generous when you explain to them that others aren’t as lucky as they are to have things.

Pick out the toys he no longer seems to play with that you don’t wish to keep for his younger brother. Choose which ones you would like to sell for him and ask him if he would like to donate the rest to children in need. Show him how his bank account is increasing with the funds from the sales and let him know he will be able to use that when he is bigger for things he needs. Also involve him in the donating process and express to him how happy he will be making less fortunate children with his kindness.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Leisure activity items, be that sport, craft, digital media, reading material etc. There are nearly always items among these collections that are less utilised than others or in some cases not at all. To narrow down the selection makes the things you do use easier to find when needed. Superseded equipment is a good place to start the weeding out process.

Sunday – Declutter your excess linen. I fact rethink how much linen you really require to cater for yourself your family and a couple of guests. Some people seem to stock enough for the All Blacks (New Zealand) rugby team. This really isn’t necessary especially if you have a dryer and even if you don’t a laundromat is never far away should you have a houseful of people and the weather turns foul.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

I received a post request from Jane some time ago and was hoping you, her fellow 365ers, might share with her  your personal experience with this issue.

Here is Jane’s subject for you…

Resisting temptation. How others handle trying not to drag home more stuff like knick-knacks & clothing, etc. What are their proven methods for curbing the buying urge?

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter your patio, deck or porch.

Sunday – Declutter items that have accumulated on your coffee or lamp tables in your living room.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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