Before we get on with today’s Simple Saturday post I just wanted to let you all know that I will have limited access to the internet for a few weeks.. My blog posts are scheduled to publish as usual but I may not always be able to respond to comments. So chat among yourselves and I will chip in a little when I can. There are some guest posts scheduled during this time so you might want to address your comments on that day to the author of the post. I will be back at the helm again full time at the end of the month. Enjoy!

Clever Furniture

Anita recently requested that I do a post about space saving convertible furniture, so here it is. If you click on each image, including LIFE EDITED you will be transported to some amazing space age furniture sites. I am not endorsing these companies just showing you what is out there in the way of versatile pieces of furniture that fit into very small spaces.

www.resourcefurniture.com

www.decodir.com

Matroshka Furniture

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a totally personal item.

Photo Credit

Does your pet wear a collar and tag? If you have a pet, I hope the answer is, “Of course!” Today is a great day for inspecting your pet’s tags.

• Are they still legible?
• Are they still accurate?
• If you have a tag from Home Away or another finding service, dial the number and make sure the information they have is correct.
• Does your pet only have current tags? I once found an animals whose owners kept putting on new rabies tags like they were charms on a charm bracelet. Remove the extras.

Heaven forbid your pet should get lost, but we all know it’s possible. Even the shyest cat or the most elderly dog sometimes slips out through a open door. Keeping their tags up to date is the best way of making sure that he or she is returned to you safely.

You get a call that you need to go clean out Aunt Martha’s storage garage because she died.  And, you are told to bring a trailer.  Sounds like a pain in the rear but out of respect for your Aunt Martha, you comply.  Later you send the following letter to your boss.

Dear Boss,

I’m resigning effective immediately!

The reason for my resignation is that I cleaned my aunt’s garage this morning before coming to work, and realized I don’t feel like working anymore.

See for yourself…

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I only wish my readers had such happy stories of clearing out after losing a loved one. Perhaps one day.

Schoolwork Clutter

I received an email from Monica this week in regards to my opinion on what to save of kids school papers.  Here is her query…

Your post about your daughter returning home prompted me to ask the question about the “treasures” collected from children at school.   Recently my two high school children “went through” all the special awards, certificates and artwork I had collected for them from their primary school years all neatly filed in plastic sleeves in lever arch files.   They didn’t throw anything out and I am reluctant to as well but they do take up lots of space in our house and, are rarely looked at.   One of my children has thrown out most of their school work books and the other one has kept all of them.  I know some readers will say scan everything and keep it filed on computer.   Any other ideas of keeping those special primary school papers without it being a storage hassle? 

I have sent Monica my thoughts on the subject but decided to canvas my readers to see what ideas you all had about this. Please feel free to respond with your thoughts and experiences.

Photo Credit ~ Spaghetti Gazette

According to the January/February 2012 issue of Money magazine, you’ll be happier if you

“Spend a Little a Lot of the Time

“The Reason: Frequent small indulgences give you greater happiness than occasional splurges, according to a growing body of research covering everything from the pleasures of chocolate-chip cookies and massage chairs to lottery tickets and good grades.

“The Resolution: Skip big-ticket purchases in favor of smaller ones you can spread out. Instead of splurging on dinner and a show, eat out one weekend and go to the theater the next. Rather than a designer dress you might rarely wear, treat yourself to monthly pedicures.”

I read this, and it immediately occurred to me how this information could easily lead to the accumulation of clutter. Buying something feels good, and it’s fun, so we do it again. And again.

For those of you for whom shopping really is the weak link in your decluttering efforts, how can you take this information and use it in a way that is beneficial rather than destructive? Some of my ideas are

• Coffee out or purchasing very nice coffee or tea to have at home
• Getting a pedicure (Painted toes give me a real thrill.)
• Taking a weekly class on a topic you’ve been interested in for some time.
• What else? Shopping isn’t much of a vice to me, but I know for those of you who enjoy shopping, the advice “talk a walk in the evenings” probably isn’t going to replace the thrill of shopping. What ideas do you have for buying happiness without buying stuff?

 

Photo Credit ~ www.lifehappens.org

I almost wouldn’t not believe these stories of decluttering financial windfall if I had not been personally involved in every one of them.

Story One is my own. Last year I was tidying up my fireproof safe that contains my most important papers (birth certificates, wills, passports, etc.) and discovered an envelope containing $500. I was shocked for about 30 seconds before I remembered that I had put that money in there after Hurricane Rita, which affected the Gulf Coast, about five hours from where I live, and the giant city of Houston. In the mass exodus, many locations did not have electricity, so evacuees could not access cash machines, could not use their credit cards, and were completely handicapped by a lack of cash. I had completely forgotten that I had put this money aside. Theoretically I would have remembered or found this money in an emergency. . . . Right?

Stories Two and Three both happened within the past 30 days.

Story Two: A friend of mine became depressed and, as a result, allowed his mail to back up for months. To help him out, I went through an enormous stack of mail and papers he had squirreled away without processing. In total, I found six checks worth over $2500. Four of the checks he knew about; one he had opened but completely forgotten about; one was in an envelope that had never been opened.

Story Three: I have made reference several times to folks who live in California but have a storage unit here in Texas. In December when they were visiting, they cleaned out several boxes in their unit and found $5000 of U.S. Savings Bonds which had matured and were available to be cashed. (For those of you outside the U.S., Savings Bonds are a very safe, long-term investment, usually 20 or 30 years; the amount of interest earned is guaranteed by the U.S. government and is known at the time that the bonds are purchased.)

The sum of these three decluttering stories is $8000. Could you sitting on a windfall and not even know it too?

Do you have any foreign coin cluttering up a drawer in your home. Even though this post is Australian oriented I am sure if you check out your countries UNICEF web site or contact them they will have a similar foreign coin initiative. Every airline I have travelled on have collected coin for this purpose. So if you have travelled overseas and have foreign coin sitting around unused why not declutter it and help children’s charities.

Drop off foreign coins at any Commonwealth Bank An exciting initiative launched by the Commonwealth Bank and UNICEF is encouraging Aussie travellers to make their spare foreign currency count for children in need around the world.

The Commonwealth Bank has recently launched its new foreign exchange envelope which promotes Commonwealth Bank’s support of UNICEF projects through the Coins for Kids program.

All foreign exchange purchased in branch will be placed in these envelopes which encourages customers to return foreign coins to Commonwealth Bank branches, supporting UNICEF’s work for children in developing countries.

Thank you to Judy for first posing this question to me. It got me thinking about the six different currencies we have lying in a drawer in my house. I will be off to the Commonwealth bank to drop it off next week.

Today I wanted to share another little story with you regarding a thrift shop donation. To be correct it really wasn’t a donation it was me acting as a go between. Confused? Well here’s the full story.

A man came into the thrift store where I volunteer. He had a microwave oven to donate. Now for reasons unknown to me we can not take donations of microwave ovens so I had to refuse the offer. I suggested to the gentleman that he check out freecycle.org but he looked somewhat confused and I got the impression that the oven was going to end up in landfill if I didn’t do something. The man had said it was a perfectly good appliance but that they had bought a new one. Diplomacy prevented me from asking why on earth they bought a new one when this one was still in good condition but it was a struggle I can assure you.

So needless to say I took the microwave oven from him and told him I would find a new owner for it myself. I left the oven in the back of the store in an area the customers aren’t supposed to enter with the intension of taking it home with me to Freecycle. Nevertheless about ten minutes later a young couple approached me at the counter with the oven in hand asking how much is was. So I did what any good intentioned person who hates waste would do. I said to them “I am sorry it is not for sale we aren’t allowed to sell microwave ovens but here is what I can do for you. You can have the microwave oven for free, it just didn’t come from this store. OK!” The young couple understood the underlying message, gladly picked up the oven and went merrily on their way. They were happy to get a freebie, I was happy not to have to freecycle it and the man who donated it was happy. All in a mere fifteen minutes work.

Today I wanted to share this video with you there is no need to watch the whole thing although I would if I were you, it is a great story. The part I wanted you to see is from 4:10 to 6:00

Why you should have a party everyday

And before you go, below is a photo of all the papercrafting supplies the our reader Deb J has been decluttering this week. Well done Deb!

Deb J's Papercraft Decluttering Effort

Have a great weekend everyone and happy decluttering!

If you are looking for a

new year’s resolution

consider pledging to

declutter

an item a day from your home everyday

during 2012.

That’s 365 less things you will have cluttering up your home by 2013. Whether you think you are fairly organised and decluttered or you haven’t even begun decluttering yet this pledge is not difficult to adhere to. At the start of 2010 I know I was organised and thought I was reasonably decluttered but I set the challenge to decluttered a thing a day thinking I might run out of things before the year ended. Not only did I not run out but in 2011 I have declutter one thing five days a week and am still finding things to get rid of. So why not make the pledge, you have nothing to lose but a whole lot of space to gain. You may even recoup some money in the process.

But remember and this is very important don’t reclutter while you declutter.

* Happy New Year Banner credit ~ http://manysoft.in