This really was a simple little declutter mini mission. The box of odds and ends involved had not even been opened in some time and most of what was in it was well and truly redundant. Some bits found their way to the bin, some in the donation box and just a few things were rehoused elsewhere.

As you can see there wasn’t much left after the unnecessary stuff was removed and I soon found new homes for that. Now I have put the box aside for the time being until I decide if I have another use for it or if it should be decluttered too. I always find it difficult to part with useful storage items like this but if I have no use for it then I just don’t need it do I?

Oh! By the way I forgot to mention that my husband was the one who carried out this particular mini mission. I love that he is so involved and as keen to declutter our home as I am.

This week I have another example of how a ten minute tidy up can make a big difference to how an area of a home can improve in appearance. My craft room is a perfect example of how working with reckless abandon can cause things to get a little messy not to mention the fact that it is the most cluttered area of my house.
A couple of weeks ago I photo documented this tidy up of my collection of craft ribbon and unlike last weeks “Spot the difference” you don’t need to look closely to see the improvement here.

Before

Before

Quite the jumbled mess don’t you think but ten minutes later it looked like the this…

After

After

There was no decluttering involved just a few carefully placed pin and a lot of rewinding. Quite an improvement don’t you think.

To all you Aussie Declutterers out there check out this little gem on an idea. Click on the heading (link) blow to view the web site after watching the video.

~ The Garage Sale Trail ~

I mean to encourage you to have a garage sale and get rid of some stuff not follow the Garage Sale Trail and buy more stuff. 😉

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Today’s column is an answer to an email I received from my friend Jennifer:

As I look around and see stuff just overwhelming me, I am working on paring down what I own.  My question is that much of the stuff becomes clutter because I am interrupted and do not get to complete a project (or I under estimate how long it will take me to complete said project).  How are you managing not to continue to have things out of place?  I have gone through and organized things only to find 6 months or a year later that they are disorganized again.

Although Jennifer has posed this as one question, I see two problems here 1) she is interrupted while decluttering or underestimates the commitment, so the project is not completed and 2) things fall back into disorder.

Problem 1: Biting off more than you can chew

Any large-scale decluttering and organizing adventure can fall into this category. When you pull everything out of a closet, you’ve just made a commitment. Here at 365lessthings, we advocate decluttering one thing at a time, one day at time, because it’s a lot harder to get overwhelmed and in over your head that way, but I know that reality isn’t so simple. I often declutter a large amount one day, and “credit” myself for the rest of the week. In fact, in my 8 months of decluttering, I have eliminated more than 1600 things, clearly more than one item a day.

Nonetheless, if you’re feeling unsuccessful after repeated starts and stop, I recommend trying just one or two things a day. When there’s less to dig through and make decisions about, it will be easier. And go ahead and get it out of your house. Jennifer, like a lot of people, lives in the country and does a lot of errands at once when she sets out. Putting the now-decluttered items directly into the car allows them to be dropped at the thrift store while erranding and eliminates the possibility of them being reincorporated into the household mix.

Another technique for the overwhelmed is to do just one shelf, drawer, or basket at a time. If you’re working on the bathroom towels and you find things that don’t belong there, drop them in the corner, and finish the towels. Then put all other items where they belong (or where you best estimate that they should belong) and leave them there. Do not feel obligated to tidy these areas too. Remember, for this day, keep your eyes on the prize of the towels. Run out of time even to put the misplaced items away today? Fine, make that your chore for the following day.

When you’ve completed every shelf in the bathroom closet, go back through the whole thing and refine it. Now that the obviously misplaced and no longer needed items are gone, you can see what remains more clearly. Maybe you have too many towels or duplicates of useful items. The second time through is when you’ll really get the cabinet into shape.

Problem #2) Falling to disorder

The fewer things you have, the less disorder there will be. I’ve definitely seen this in my own home. In addition, the most important rule for keeping your home clutter free is to give serious consideration before you buy something new. The less you bring into the house, the easier it is to keep it from being junked up. This is Colleen’s Key #4 to successful decluttering:

Decluttering is a complete waste of time if there is as much stuff entering your house as there is going out. Limit your purchases to the things you really have put a lot of thought into, whether you will get good use out of it, or if it really suits your needs. Don’t wonder aimlessly through the stores looking for stuff you didn’t know you wanted. And try to convince your friends and family not to buy you gifts unless they are consumable in some way -  Fresh flowers, chocolates, beauty treatments and the like.

Finally, it’s important to realize that no decluttering job lasts forever. Like housekeeping and tidying, it’s an on-going process. The children grow, hobbies change, people knock things over when they reach for something else, duplicates are accidentally purchased or discovered. Maintenance is inevitable, but remember, the less you have, the easier it is.

Today’s Declutter Item

I am making headway with natural decluttering of the paper craft supplies. Slowly but surely the myriad of adhesives are starting to dwindle down to a manageable few.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• Joining the last fragment of soap to the new cake – I love to use things up completely.
• A day out with the kids – I think we took in about 500,000 calories between the Max Brenner Chocolate  Bar and the fish and ship shop.
• My daughters plane was on time.
• I went for a brisk early morning walk with a friend and her dog Max.
• That it was cool enough again today to enjoy a warm shower after my walk.
  

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

My father always says there is sheer laziness and there is smart laziness. The first one is not an attractive trait while the other one is about finding the most efficient and effective way to cut down on your work load without neglecting anything. I am all for smart laziness and like Dad, I am pretty good at it. Utilising this ability makes staying organised a much simpler task.

Sometimes the most efficient method is obvious to us while other times we need to be taught, and the best way to learn is to have an open mind. I tend to be the kind of person who having no desire to spend more time on unpleasant tasks than necessary, can usually figure out an efficient method quite quickly. While others whose special talents lie elsewhere might need a little help with this. I have a bad habit of assuming that everyone shares this strange talent and neglect to share this insight believing it is common knowledge.

With that in mind I am going to share with you my weekly housecleaning routine and some photos showing what some areas of my home look like once I done. Don’t get me wrong I do no love housecleaning – I have not gone quite that mad yet – but I do love a clean house.

The first seemingly obvious rule of my household cleaning is – if it isn’t dirty don’t waste time cleaning it. Below is the routine I follow keeping rule one in mind at all times and using my microfibre cloth cleaning methods of course.

Going room by room…

• Put away anything that is out of place
• I dust all surfaces that don’t need wet cleaning not forgetting skirting boards, wall art and door recesses
• Clean all glass surfaces not forgetting TV and computer screens
• Wipe scuff marks off walls, if any.

Kitchen…

• Wipe out microwave.
• Wipe down all surfaces including any marks on cupboard doors and cook top. (I move anything on benches and clean the area under them)
• Clean toaster, kettle and cutting board.
• Clean sink/s including splash back

Bathrooms…

• Clean bath, shower, basin and toilet.
• Dust window sill

Once all these tasks are done I vacuum all floors and then mop the hard floor areas.

You are probably looking at this list and thinking what’s so efficient about that, it sounds like hard work to me. But the trick to this is that aside from wiping down the kitchen benches after preparing food and perhaps a quick sweep of the kitchen and entry floor if they get too messy, I do not repeat any of the above tasks until the next week. And because I hate cleaning the shower so much I only do it every other week. Once the routine has become habit you find you whip through it in no time because you don’t have to think about it. I usually start cleaning my 3 bedroom, 1 study, 2 1/2 bathroom house at about 8am and am done by lunch.

Of course there are chores that need doing constantly like cleaning the dishes (thank God for dishwashers), laundry and cooking but that’s life. I only periodically clean above the fridge and kitchen cupboards, the oven, the objects in the display cabinet, windows and outdoor areas etc.

Of course the key is to stay tidy and organised in the between time. This doesn’t mean slaving everyday. It just means spending that fraction of time it takes to put things away after you have finished using them. It also means knowing where everything is at any given moment, which isn’t hard once you are organised.

Here’s the clincher, the not so common sense moral to this whole story. You will actually waste more time and effort rummaging around in your mess trying to find things and trying to perform tasks amidst a mess than you actually would if you just kept it tidy. Things get lost and broken in a mess, so it can also cost you money and create clutter. I suppose it just depends on what you want to spend your time and money on.

ITEM 289 OF 365 LESS THINGS

One for the donation box. This program is now way out of date and we are mostly an Apple family now. Maybe some else can use it.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. A visit with my parents – Even though it will be brief it will still be nice to see them.
2. Laptops – Their portability comes in handy when you are trying to get a blog post out and you are running out of time to catch a train for an overnight stay. I may not need to take it but the option is there if I do.
   
3. All that life has given me – I have really had a very fortunate life and I should never take that for granted.
4. I am finally getting over my cold
5. Being Thin – I don’t take any credit if for it I think it is just the way I was made and it actually does simplify life in many ways.

Use this button to link to Day 287 The future of 365lessthings and have your say on what direction you would like my blog to go in once the 365 days are up. Don’t be shy, I really would like your input. Once you are there just leave a comment. Thanks!

Today’s Word of the Day is…

SIMPLE

• Do SIMPLE things to improve your way of life.
• Keep your spending SIMPLE buy what you need not things that just clutter up your space.
• Eat a more SIMPLE diet choose fresh ingredients that aren’t enveloped in wasteful packaging. Choose recipes that are SIMPLE to create using ingredients that can be used in subsequent meals so nothing goes to waste.
• Enjoy SIMPLE pleasures like a walk in the park, a coffee with a friend or a wander through a museum instead of spending all your free time shopping.
• Keep your decluttering efforts SIMPLE by concentrating on one SIMPLE task at a time so you aren’t overwhelmed.
• Keep the decision making SIMPLE so you don’t waste time and energy agonising over what stays and what goes. My Declutter Decision Making Guide can help with this.
• Make housecleaning SIMPLE, the less stuff you own the less work there is involved in maintaining a clean and tidy home.

It is true the SIMPLE things in life are often the best, enjoy them.

ITEM 173 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Do you think I will ever get finished with the kitchen clutter I am starting to wonder myself.

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

Here is a section of an inspiring email I received from one of my readers last week.

Deborah Hayden writes….

Your blog inspired me to start what I call a Rathole a Day. Every day I take one area – a drawer, a shelf, a box, the refrigerator—whatever pops up and I declutter it. The rule is I take everything out, clean the space and put everything back. In the process, I throw away (recycle, donate) what is obvious but I don’t make myself crazy deciding about everything. This is a blitz first pass. When I have done everything once, I’ll go into Phase 2 and make more refined decisions, but in the meantime, I will have demystified all those ratholes and dark corners full of objects and everything will be clean. So far I’m up to Day 15– I started May 1 — and I’ve made amazing progress. Where will I be in 365 days I wonder? I’m keeping it simple.

Along the way, my mantra is if I have it in my space, it must be beautiful or useful. That means sometimes upgrading instead of just getting rid of.

I was so happy to receive this email as I am to receive any encouraging feedback and stories of people who have been inspired to make their homes simply comfortable, peaceful places to be. Deb is well on her way to doing this and I look forward to hearing more about her progress as she continues in her quest.

I very much agree with Deborah’s mantra. My husband and I have been making great progress with the decluttering but every now and again we come across an item that has for one reason or another become not quite right for us and rather than getting rid of altogether needs upgrading or downsizing. We are comfortable to do this as they are usually items that are used constantly but are outdated or not fulfilling our needs anymore. Examples of this are the stereo from Day 73 and the today’s item.

ITEM 142 OF 365 LESS THINGS

A computer tower and monitor which we sold on eBay for a mere $30.00. The tower was replaced with an Apple Mac Mini which measures 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches a considerable bit smaller that this tower.

Here is another area in your home that needs to be gone through on a regular basis to avoid the clutter of unnecessary paperwork that has become irrelevant over time.

Firstly all warranties and manuals should be stored together in a safe place where they  can be easily located should a situation arise where it becomes necessary to refer to them. We keep ours in a hanging file box in the bottom of our linen closet with other documents such as lease/phone contracts, vehicle registration info etc.

Over time these documents become redundant, warranty periods expire and  you no longer own items that you are still holding manuals for. Therefore the paperwork becomes clutter taking up valuable space.

I suggest visiting these files once a year to weed out the documents that are no longer relevant and dispose of them. I am considering scanning the manuals so I can dispose of them altogether but that is a project for another day.

I went through my file today and found a small batch that have become unnecessary because of the culling process we are going through with our 365lessthings project. I will not be photographing these and adding them to the list of 365 because I have so many other things to document at the moment that I just can’t be bothered with this one little thing but I am glad it is one more area of my home that is uncluttered.

ITEM 119 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Todays’s item is one of those things that in my opinion is just made wrong. It feels too small and compacted making it uncomforatable to use so in the garbage is goes.

I read forums and posts on other blogs and I can’t help but think that people put themselves under too much pressure when it comes to decluttering. Below are a few suggestions I have to help release that pressure…

• The clutter didn’t appear overnight so don’t expect it to disappear overnight.
• Don’t look at the big picture it’s too scary sometimes.
• Pace yourself, there is no hurry.
• Don’t set a deadline.
• Save the hard to decide items until last. I find the further I get into this the more ruthless I become.
• Be rational, way up the pros and cons when it comes to what stays and what goes.
• One step at a time, whether that is one room one cupboard, one drawer or one item just so long as it is something at a pace you can handle.
• Give yourself a mental pat on the back with every item you send on it’s way.
• Stay focused on what you have achieved not the size of the task ahead.

One thing you must remember is to not replace the items you are getting rid of with some other thing that will soon become tomorrows clutter making your efforts useless because you are taking one step forward two steps back.

ITEM 113 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Here are some of the ways I go about looking for areas in my home that need some de-cluttering attention

1. I set aside one day a week, usually Tuesday, to do my general housecleaning. On that day I keep a watchful eye out while working and write down the trouble stops in my trusty notebook so I will remember to come back to them later on.
2. While puting away the clean laundry is a good time to have a glance around in the closets for any clothing items etc that haven’t seen the light of day for a while. Even if you pluck out just one thing every now and again it all makes a difference.
3. Sometimes when I am looking for other stuff I may stumble upon something. Like the other day when getting my large cutting mat out from under the spare bed I found some old posters  that aren’t ever going back up on any walls in my house if I have anything to do with it.
4. Sometimes everyday conversations, actions or things I see may trigger random thoughts  about something I had forgot that is hiding away in a box somewhere  so I will either take action immediately or jot it down in my notebook for later on.
5. Of course moving house is one of the greatest catalists for getting your butt into gear and really have a good clean up so the clutter doesn’t follow you to your new home.
6. It may sound odd but sometimes I also kill a few minutes while I wait for the kettle to boil by checking in the kitchen/dining area for item I no longer use.

All of these actions take up very little time in your day but can make such a diffenence. Give it a try.

Here are the posters I mentioned in sugestion no.3 of todat’s blog, my husband has granted me permition to dispense of these as I see fit. It will be my pleasure!