As the title suggests I have been taking my own advice and finding ten minutes daily this week to declutter some stuff around my house. And although the difference is small I feel a whole lot better for having done it.

The first area I decluttered was a drawer in my side-table next to my spot on the sofa. It wasn’t cluttered as such, as there was plenty of vacant space in it. However it still had things that had arrived there over time that either didn’t belong there, was rubbish or useless to me. I decluttered a small flashlight to the donate pile, a plastic bag to the bin and I little plate stand to my art space where it is more likely to be used.

I also decluttered a few boxes in my craft area. I reshuffled their contents and threw away or recycled bits and pieces in them that had lingered too long. There may not have been much that was decluttered but I feel better for them being organised and clear of unwanted stuff.

I also worked on a section of a drawer in my closet. From it I decluttered a brochure to the recycling bin, some old coins that I relocated to a more appropriate place, and a box and gift receipt from an item of jewellery I had received back in February (both went to the recycling bin). Which goes to prove that even when you think you are decluttered there is always things that come in and require dealing with at some point.

The next area I checked for decluttering was the cabinet that our television sits on. I didn’t find one thing in it that I could declutter. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d actually be happy to declutter just about everything in this cabinet but none of it is mine. They are all my husbands items, which aren’t mine to declutter. One has to accept that in a shared space there always has to be compromise.

Retrieving a jacket from my spare room closet resulted in some impromptu decluttering of two leather belts and a plastic skeleton. Talk about skeletons in your closet right! lol These items were freebies collected for craft purposes. Things like this in my house have use by dates. If they haven’t been transformed into something amazing within a reasonable amount of time and their potential usefulness means less to me than freeing up the space, then they are out of here. All three items went in the donation pile.

I even took a look through my sock drawer but didn’t find anything in there to let go. I have that area pretty well under control.

So as you can see, from all these little decluttering tasks that took mere minutes, it isn’t hard to achieve slow and steady decluttering with very little effort. All these little difference add up to a whole lot of decluttering in the end.

So how are you doing with the mini missions this week?

Today’s Mini Mission

Take a look on and in a desk or work space today. Give yourself ten minutes to find and declutter something that is not used and wasting space in this area.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown

Eco Tip for the Day

When all else is equal between one product or another choose the one with the most eco friendly packaging.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

This post is all about breaking down, into steps, the task of decluttering a large cluttered area of your home without causing undue disruption. I am going to use the kitchen as my example area, however these steps can be easily adapted to any space. I chose the kitchen simply because, in Western Society, this space usually has lots of divisions of space with lots of individual items in them. So without further adieu let us begin.

Step One ~ Setting up

If you don’t already have a space set up to store the decluttered items prior to complete removal from your home ~ I call this the transition point ~ now is the time take care of this step. Designate an area to move the items to that you wish to declutter. This is where you store them until you are able to get out to deliver them to the thrift shop, donation bin, sell them or pass them on to a friend or relative. You may want to set up individual tubs in order to keep these items separate depending on there intended final destination.

Step Two ~ Division of space

Choose one small space in your area to work on at a time.  Make it a small enough space ~ One drawer, one shelf, one area of the bench top… ~ that can be dealt with quickly and easily.

Step Three ~ Empty and choose

Remove everything from this small space, choosing which items to declutter as you handle each one. Move the decluttered items to your transition point. At this time you may also want to return misplaced items to their appropriate areas. However don’t be tempted to fine tune the space as that is much easier to achieve once the decluttering of the entire area has taken place

Step Four ~ Prep

If necessary, do any cleaning or maintenance necessary to prepare this space for the return of the keeper items. Also clean any keeper items that require it.

Set Five ~ Replace

Replace the keeper items to the space in the most sensible order to suit your needs. Now the greater area is tidy again.

Set Six ~ Repeat

If you have time at this juncture you can move on to the next small section of your area ~ starting at step two and follow through to step five. However if you have other things to do with your day you can walk away comforted by the fact that the area is tidy and you can return to the task when time permits.

Clearly the strategy is to break the large area into small sections that can be completed in a short period of time. Do one section at a time leaving no mess behind you as you move on. Continue section by section at your own pace.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something you have knowingly passed over during previous decluttering mission that you still haven’t utilised. I decluttered some cardboard boxes that I saved for mailing but haven’t been used.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown

Eco Tip for the Day

Only turn a light on when absolutely necessary.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

I received an email from Jane  a couple of weeks ago requesting me to write a post about getting ones act together and fixing things rather than have them sitting around as useless clutter. Both Cindy and I have written posts about similar topics not all that long ago. Cindy’s post was about addressing old but easy tasks on your to-do list . Mine about fixing something that had annoyed me for much longer than it took to fix ~ much much longer. I also wrote a post way back called Learn To Sew which also is worth a read. However  Jane’s email gave a very good example of this so have quoted it below.

“…for the last 6+ months the hood on my coat has been missing the fur edging because two of the buttons, which it was attached with, had come off (I actually can’t remember when they WERE attached anymore!). So I pulled the fur edging out of my drawer (which incidentally, frequently gets jammed due to all the rubbish in there) and decided to stitch the buttons back on…I then realised I’d decluttered all my buttons a while back, but decided to proceed anyway, and just stitched the fur edging to the hood where the buttons would have been. The coat only has to last me a few more weeks until it’s warm enough to wear lighter clothing, so I didn’t want to waste money buying expensive buttons (or put the job off for even longer by having to wait until I made a trip to the craft store, and then never end up doing it!). Voila – no piece of fur lying in my draw anymore and one fixed, and hopefully, warmer coat!

We keep these little items for months, claiming we’ll fix them when we get time…but soon the weeks disappear and they’re still lying there unfixed, cluttering up our home. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has heaps of things which are broken or need sewing but lie around unused for months or even years.” ~ Jane

Google is a great tool for finding tutorials on fixing all sorts of things. So before throwing things away see if you can figure out how to repair them. Do this sooner rather than later because there are fewer things more annoying than a long to-do list of easy chores left undone causing more irritation than necessary. Should you decide you don’t have the skill to fix things, Freecycle is a great way to declutter these items. There are plenty of other people out there who do have the expertise you might be lacking. Advertise the item as-is describing its stare of disrepair and I am sure you will still find someone out there willing to take it off your hands. I have done this a couple of times myself with great success.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item that you only keep because it was once useful to you. If it isn’t useful to you anymore it is just clutter.

Eco Tip for the Day

Save on heating and cooling by fixing air leaks in your home (around windows and under doors)  with weather-stripping and/or caulking.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a large item you might have in the garage, attic or basement that you have kept handy in case you will have a use for it someday. Perhaps and item of furniture, a sporting item you used to use, a restoration project…

Eco Tip for the Day

If you don’t have a dual flush toilet you can adjust the height of the float so less water is released with each flush.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

There are two boxes that I need to keep me organized and decluttered. Just two boxes. It’s a simple system, and it might help keep you on the right path too.

Box #1, which lives in the bottom of our least-used closet, is not actually one box, but an ever changing parade of boxes and paper bags, and is the Thrift Store Bag. Anything not needed, not wanted, etc. goes into this bag. I never make a sweep of the house looking for things to take to the thrift store; they just accumulate day after day, week after week. When the bag / box is full, I take it to my van. The next time I pass by the thrift store, I make a quick stop.

Box #2 lives in the back of my van. I know that a lot of us struggle to find place to stash items that need to be returned to the store or given back to a friend or dropped off at an out-of-the-way recycling place. This box is my solution. Instead of storing this sort of thing like a runway by my front door, or worse, cluttering my desk further,  I immediately take items that need to be go elsewhere to the box in the van. I look in the box often enough that I have a mental picture of what’s in there and where it ultimately belongs. The wonderfulness of this system is how easy it makes returning things to their rightful homes. What I need is always with me. I never pull into the parking lot of a store and then slap my forehead because I forgot an item I need to return; it’s always with me.

Two cardboard boxes make my life so much smoother. Do you have a simple technique for keeping yourself organized?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some items from a closet that is over full, making it difficult to keep organised.

Eco Tip for the Day

Consider ways use to your car less, such as planning ahead, forgoing unnecessary trips, walking more and ride sharing. My car is in the shop for repairs this week and I am managing just fine without it.

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

Cindy

Recently I did something that made me so happy – I took care of two really, really old things that were on my to-do list. These things were so small that it’s almost embarrassing to tell you what they were, but doing them made me so happy that I will. The first thing was taking the dogs’ beds to the laundromat and washing them. I wash the covers at home regularly, but I can’t put the whole bed into my washer, and they needed it. The other thing was taking two scented candles (same scent) that had burned down so far that neither would light any more, melting the wax, and pouring them together to make another, usable candle. I did this because I loved the scent of these candles so much, and it’s not available any more.

What does this have to do with clutter? Mental clutter! Aspirational clutter! I had these two ideas in my mind for months and taking care of them would randomly pop up and bother me. Including driving to the laundromat, washing and drying the dogs beds took and hour and 15 minutes. There’s a school with a great playground extremely close laundromat, and the girls and dogs went there and frolicked while the beds washed then dried. Melting the candles took virtually no time, because I was working in the kitchen anyway, and I already had the wick. (I’d purchased a package of wicks ages ago as aspirational clutter for the day I finally combined these candles; something else that weighed on my mind when I would open the cabinet where the wicks were stored and think, “Will I ever get around to doing that?”

Neither of these was a big project, neither took much time, but the happiness and satisfaction that I got from getting them off my to do list was amazing. Do you have any small, lingering to dos that will eliminate some mental  (or some other) clutter?

Today’s Mini Mission

Assess your cutlery drawer. Did you have more than enough knifes, folks, spoons etc to cope with a houseful of people. If so let some go. I had set aside a four person set of cutlery prior to Christmas to see if I really needed to keep them. We did run out of forks a couple of times but I could have easily washed some by hand so I think this spare set can go in a box for my daughter to take when she moves into her own place.

Eco Tip for the Day

Encourage family, friends and anyone who will listen to refuse, reuse, recycle and reduce.

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

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.

I have had a couple of conversations lately with people who are struggling to gain momentum with their decluttering. They are making fitful starts here and there but get frustrated. I have discovered through these conversations that the main underlining theme behind their difficulty is that, once chosen, they don’t have a plan in place as to how to get rid of the clutter. As a result all they end up doing is moving it around the house.

Most of my regular readers have this situation well and truly in hand. So much so, that they can also easily investigate and discover an outlet even for those odd items that don’t fit with their usual system. This comes with practice and experience of course. For those starting out though it is better to keep it simple and grow from there.

With a little forethought, a few phone calls and maybe a little leg work anyone can set themselves up to be successful declutterers from the start. The fact is, that knowing how to get rid of the stuff is equally as important as being willing to let it go in the first place.

So here are my suggestions for what to do to get yourself set up for declutter success…

• Keep it simple. Choose a few methods for getting rid of your stuff that will make it easy to achieve success. You can always get more imaginative with your disposal methods later when you have worked out how to really flex your decluttering muscle.
• Let your fingers do the walking. Use google or your local phone directory (online or off) to find where the thrift stores are in your area. Phone them and enquire what items they are willing to receive. Many such organisations have web sites these days that give all the information you will need. Choose the one that receives the widest range of items because that will make it easier for you to get rid of lots of things at once and will save you a lot of running around. Better still, choose one that will come to you if that is an option.
• Make freecycle.org your new best friend. Listing stuff to give away on freecycle is a great way to offload things that are still good but not accepted by your local thrift stores.
• See if curb-side decluttering will work for you. Just put something out with a FREE sign on it and see if it is taken. Please don’t leave things out overnight though.
• If you are feeling adventurous and think you may want to sell some things through online selling sites like ebay, Trademe or Craigslist etc, investigate how that works and do a trial run with an item you have chosen to send on its way. Talk to a friend or family member who has used these sites for advice on how to go about selling and what strategies have worked best for them. My suggestion is to keep it simple to begin with; don’t worry what day or time your auctions begin, just get them up there. Limiting yourself with best times can have the effect of slowing you down. I find it makes no difference as to how my auctions perform so long as the auction ends at a reasonable hour of the day.
• Consider having a garage/yard sale. This way you can put the stuff aside for a while until you have enough items for the sale. What isn’t sold at the sale can then be donated.

Once you have yourself set for success that is exactly what will ensue.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something used for food preparation.

Today’s Declutter Item

I have a timer on my oven, a timer on my microwave and a stopwatch on my cell phone so why do I need this old fashioned egg timer. I don’t! So out it goes. I can’t imagine how I have missed decluttering this for so long.

Old Fashioned Egg Timer

Eco  Tip for the Day

 Avoid using throw-away items where possible. Eg. paper napkins, batteries, paper cups etc. Instead, replace these with reusable items to reduce on waste.

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

I love lists. I used to love them more. And you know what? I used to be a lot more organized and a lot more efficient. Coincidence? I think not.

I cannot stress enough that you need a list – probably several of them. I don’t care if you keep them on paper or electronically. I do both, but for me nothing beats the satisfaction of crossing off a to-do item with paper and pen. (Great repurposing of half-used spiral notebooks that come home at the end of the school year every August.)

Especially is you tend to dilly-dally and procrastinate, you need a list. If you tend to wander the world of blogs, get hung up on Facebook, read your latest book all the way through in one sitting, or watch all 20 hours of the televised Olympic events – each day, you need a list.

Why? Because a list keeps you going. It keeps you focused. It reminds you of what you’ve done and what needs to be done. A list frees up part of your brain space – once it’s on the list, you don’t have to remember to do it, the list remembers for you. And if you do something productive that’s not on your list, be sure to add it so you can have the thrill of crossing it off.

Here are some lists you may need.

• A daily to-do
• Dreams and goals
• Areas that need to be decluttered
• Items that you have decided to sell (especially important as a reminder if you want to sell something seasonal or holiday-themed at the ideal time)
• Tasks that need to be done around the house – quick projects and the big ones
• Items that need to be returned to a certain person or a specific location (keeps your front or back door area from becoming a storage facility)
• Things that need research, including whether or not something is worth selling
• Books or movies you want to read / watch.
• Ares that need to be decluttered

I mentioned the last one already? Well let me mention it again. Even a person as decluttered as I am has areas that need a first, second, or even third swing. My areas include my desk, the art closet (which is becoming my personal nemesis), the shelves in Clara’s closet, the shelves in Audra’s closet, linen closet, storage area under the stairs (Dan’s domain, but it still needs decluttering so it’s on my list), and numerous areas in the garage.

Even though I declutter almost daily and have for more than two years, there are areas that need (or need again) concentrated attention. Some, like the linen closet, I may discover need more of a tidying than an actual decluttering. Other areas, like the cupboard under the stairs, need some serious attention. (Will we find Harry Potter in there?)

And I will get to them, all of them, one item at a time, because my list will make sure of it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter unnecessary items on bedside cabinets, chests of drawers or dressing tables.

Today’s Declutter Item

Choosing which craft items to declutter was one thing actually getting them out of the house is a whole other ball game. I am working on it though. The best thing about these is I now have a little extra money in my paypal account.

Sizzix cutting dies sold on ebay

Something to be grateful for today

Getting more things done yesterday than I expected. I was exhausted but pleased.

“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

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.