Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

Today’s mini missions are categorised by what they are made of. This gives you a pretty wide scope as to what to let go of that is made from each of these materials. I’ll help you out with some suggestion as to what you might look for but, by all means, use your own imagination. So have fun as you declutter something made from…

Monday – Glass ~ There are no end of things made from glass within the average home. Here are some suggestions of items you might declutter in this category. Drinking glasses, vases, eye glasses (donate these to charity), figurines, computer screens, pictures frames…

Tuesday – Paper ~ This is one of the materials that are really difficult for many people to deal with. Items made from this are either usually loved or hated. Books, magazine, letters and photos can be numerous and cherished, while paperwork is a pain to sort through and deal with. You only need to spend 10 minutes on this so make the most of it.

Wednesday – Metal ~ Once again plentiful. Tools, mixing bowls, utensils, pots, vehicle parts and jewellery all come to mind very quickly but I am sure you can think of more.

Thursday – Fabric ~ Clothes, linen, carpets, blankets, pillows ought to be items easy enough to find. I have something in mind for this one this week.

Friday – Wood ~ Furniture items, kitchen tools (cutting boards, knife blocks, trays, bowls etc), and unused project materials would be  good targets for this mission.

Saturday - Plastic ~ Excess storage containers, toys, bowls and sporting equipment are just a few suggestions but I am sure you can think of many more.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t use throw away cleaning wipes. They have them for cleaning wood, kitchen spills, television screens, make-up removal etc etc. They are usually made from manmade fibres, soaked in chemicals and sold in plastic containers, all of which are bad for the environment. You can do all these jobs with a little water and a microfibre cloth that can be washed and used over and over again.

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

Today’s mini mission is ~ Declutter one hand powered kitchen gadget you don’t use enough to warrant wasting the space on. So let me give you some examples of the things like this that I can remember decluttering over my four year mission. Hopefully that will give you inspiration to let go of a few yourself.

Flour Sieve ~ I had had my flour sieve since before I was married. It used to belong to my Grandmother. I used it most times when I baked. However in a mission to minimise and simplify in my kitchen I decided that I didn’t need this item. I already had three progressive sized multipurpose sieves that I used for all other sieving need. I figured these could suffice to take care of the flour as well.

Garlic Press ~ To begin with I usually bought crushed garlic in a jar. But then I discovered that fresh garlic was much better. By this time I had already decided that my garlic press didn’t work all that well and was difficult to clean. I am sure there are better ones on the market but instead I chose to use the internet to get tips on chopping and mincing garlic with a knife and never found the need again for a gadget to do this task with.

Hand Powered Rotary Mixer ~ This one was easy because I hardly ever used it because I had long ago decided that I preferred other methods of whisking and mixing ingredients. This one was too laborious and besides I rarely bake these days.

Box Style Microplane Grater ~ Once again, this item was rarely used. It was cumbersome and bulky. I had two or three other flat microplane graters to perform any task this one could, and they took up less room. I sold this one on ebay.

Apple Corer ~ A knife can do this job quite well and since I wasn’t coring a multitude of apples everyday then I didn’t need a faster method. Out it went.

Gas Stove Igniter ~ I hadn’t had a gas stove in at least 15 years or a BBQ in about 8 years so I sure didn’t need this gadget. I now have a gas stove again but it has inbuilt igniters. So no regrets there.

A Rotary Grater ~ I must have had some sort of obsession with graters at some point. This one was only being used for one purpose in the end. That was for thinly slicing apple for making Polish Apple Pancakes. I only make these every now and again and slicing the apples is a job easily done with a knife. That freed up a good bit of space in my utensils drawer.

I think this is enough examples to give you the idea of my thinking when it came to letting go of these items. I could have kept them, sure, and I probably would have continued to use them occasionally, but my goal was to free up space. With less items in my kitchen to choose from I didn’t didn’t find preparing food any harder in fact I found working in my kitchen more efficient, therefore actually saving me time. With less stuff to dig through to find the items I needed I simply wasted less time.

From my kitchen, I also decluttered numerous crockery items, utensils, baking trays, glassware and plastic storage containers. The more I removed the more pleasant the working conditions in this area became. And now that I have a slightly smaller kitchen I am still on the look out for more items I don’t really have a need for. My goal now is to make a little space in my kitchen cupboards so I can move some of my most frequently used craft items closer to the kitchen bench where I do my crafting these days. This will make crafting more efficient as well.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one hand powered kitchen gadget you don’t use enough to warrant wasting the space.

Eco Tip for the Day

Subscribe to your local government newsletter, if they have one. This will keep you abreast of the chemical and electrical recycling opportunities they have on offer. I read my Newcastle City Council newsletter this week and discovered dates for these and other drop off days coming up soon in my area.

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

I’ve said it before and I say it again… One of the most cluttered areas of a home is the kitchen. In our never pending desire to make work as simple as possible we acquire gadget after gadget ~ Of which there are an infinite number of ~ for our kitchens. Not to mention all the paraphernalia required to use these so called simplifying gadgets. Also enough crockery, cutlery, glassware and utensils so that we don’t run out while we fill the dishwasher to capacity. So this week lets see if we can find six items to declutter from this area of our homes.

Monday – Declutter one electric kitchen gadget that wasn’t so time saving or was completely pointless in the first place.

Tuesday – Declutter any crockery that you have too many pieces of.

Wednesday – Declutter any glassware you have more of than you need.

Thursday – Declutter one hand powered kitchen gadget you don’t use enough to warrant wasting the space.

Friday – Declutter utensils that you have multiples of but never need more than one at a time.

Saturday – Declutter kitchen related linen that is surplus to your needs.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

Send all your unused stuff out into the world where it can save someone else from buying new.

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

I catch the train a lot and love nosing at the back of people’s homes that we pass en route.

Doodle

I can’t help myself from thinking over some of them, that half an hour of putting things away at the onset of autumn would make such a difference to the look of a garden that never look their best during the wet dull days of winter. Of course, fortunately loads of strangers can’t see my back garden from a train 😀

We only have a small back garden – a very typical Victorian ‘backyard’ with high 8ft walls.

The History Bit

In the UK, the Victorian period is so named after the period that Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 – 1901. (Great Great Grandmother to our current Queen Elizabeth II).

This was a period of mass movement to urban living. In the town I live in, the population quadrupled during that period and there are many many streets of terrace housing, back to back (where gardens back on to the terrace behind you with no other access other than through your own back door.)

You can often find traces of the old outdoor privy and in our’s also the original brick floor of the coal house.

*

Our backyard is a fairly typical 10ft x 16 feet wide (the width of the house) and doesn’t have any soil, just paving.

When I first moved here, on my own 12 years ago, this was my first garden and I fondly imaged that I would prove to be a keen gardener, despite never having shown a flicker of interest before. In fact I remember on first meeting the people who were eventually to become my in-laws, shortly after I moved, proudly talking about my ‘interest’ in gardening, lol.

My Garden Clutter

Over the years I seemed to have collected a lot of pots (as the only means of growing plants), in part from my now in-laws full of plants but also my own annual spring burst of enthusiasm: a triumph of hope over realism.

Most died due to a combination of summer neglect and a massive snail and slug problem. I finally admitted to my self that the idea of me being a gardener   and collecting all the paraphernalia that comes with such an interest was typical aspirational hording!

I’ve stopped pretending.

Fortunately, my husband seems to have developed an interest in the garden in the last year or two but he has bought all his own pots to suit his fruit tree passions. So we’re left with a plethora of spare pots that won’t get reused.

A few weeks ago, we had a typical British trigger for de-cluttering the garden – a weekend of spring sunshine! While he happily tackled vigorous pruning I felt the urge to declutter.

Pots gone via Freecycle

My husband is never keen on de-cluttering and seemed resistant at first to the idea, but I was greatly surprised how many he was able to let go of: I did my usual, “you c
an keep as many as you like, but let’s go through them one by one and just give me a quick yes or no as to whether you can let it go”.

By removing the stress by ensuring he understood I wouldn’t be pressuring him or disapproving of his choices he said “yes it can go” to nearly every one.

To the right is a picture of many of the pots we got rid of via freecycle that weekend

How’s the clutter in your garden?

Way back in the early days of my decluttering mission I wrote a post about keeping it simple. I stand by those words to this day and have pasted them below for you to study again. Here they are…

• 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.

And where am I at today April 22, 2014?

I have done simple things to improve my way of life.

I have kept my spending simple by not buying stuff I won’t use.

My grocery cart is evidence of how I have kept my diet simple. Simple in its ingredients. You won’t find much in it other than fresh food.

Every day, whether pending, I enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Going for walks with my husband, riding my bike, going up to the roof of my apartment and enjoying the views of the harbour, having coffee with friends…

And as you know I have always kept my decluttering simple by mostly adhering to my average of a thing a day for the first 365 days and then at a slightly slower pace after that. And yet even at that pace my husband and I smoothly moved our belongings into a two bedroom apartment. And the decision making actually got easier as I went along even though I thought I was doing the easy stuff first. It just so happened that as I realised the joy of living with less I found it easier to part with stuff.

Oh, and I can vouch for the fact that being decluttered has sure made housecleaning easier. Also many other tasks around the house have simplified too because I can quickly get at what I need for them. No more overstuffed cupboards making it hard to get at stuff.

Choices have become easy because there is simply less stuff to choose between.

Being eco friendly has even become simple because now it is just habit. It is also a fun challenge to find other ways to be so.

During the decluttering process we also started the search for a home to live in. The one we finally found has also simplified our lives. I hardly use the car because nearly everything I need is within walking distance. Exercising is a joy because of the sights along the way. Our home is much small making housework simpler.

I love my new simpler life and I would recommend it to anyone. And if you would like your life simpler to just make that one first step today, then another tomorrow and another the next day and before you know it your life will be simpler too. For those of you well into your journey remember that you can take it as far as you want.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some out of date paperwork.

Eco Tip for the Day

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

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

Monday is here again and we all know what that means, mini missions. When I sat down to write this post I racked my brain for something original but I have put together so many mini mission posts by now that there can’t possibly be anything I have missed. So I decided to be specific instead. You won’t need to think of anything other than ~ Do I have too many of these?

Monday – Declutter a pair of shoes.

Tuesday – Declutter some out of date paperwork.

Wednesday – Declutter a purse, wallet, handbag, carry bag or backpack.

Thursday – Declutter old keys that you no longer remember what they belonged to.

Friday – Declutter excess hotel toiletries you have accumulated from vacations or business trips.

Saturday – Declutter a piece of jewellery you haven’t worn in a long time.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

If you only need a little light to find your way in your dark home, turn on the switch that connects to the least amount of globes. When I sit in on my bed to type my blog posts I turn on my walk-through wardrobe light. It only has one globe while my bedroom has two.

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

I received an email some time ago from an online magazine, called Get Organized, asking if they could publish an article that they had seen on my blog. The article was written by Moni, one of our regular readers and commenters. She has been a big part of our discussions here at 365 Less Things for quite a while now and has written an article for us every now and again. She was happy for them to publish the article in their magazine and I received a follow up email last week saying that it had gone to print.

Below is a copy of the article in the magazine and I have also included the original article for you to reread. I figured if the magazine thought it was worth printing then it sure was worth republishing here. Perhaps you would also like to take a look at Get Organized for yourself. Enjoy.

KEEPING THE STANGEST OF THEINGS by Moni Gilbert

I shudder at the idea of going back to my old ways of having stuff, more stuff, stored stuff, collected stuff and yet more stuff…..and then being very surprised that the house is full of stuff!

But in spite of all that, I still keep the strangest of things. I don’t know why, there is no logic to it, but I have difficulties getting rid of empty cardboard boxes and shopping bags, especially if they are from particularly nice clothes store or from a surf wear shop.

There is a wee corner of my brain that insists cardboard boxes are useful. Maybe they are, maybe they’re not, but I can get as many as I want any time that I want from my local Pak’n’Save. I have no plans to store anything and no need to carry anything in the foreseeable future but I faithfully stack a small pile of them in the garage until finally the rational part of my brain turns up a few days later and breaks them down for recycling.

Shopping bags. I’m not talking about supermarket bags or ones from the mainstream stores, but the rather nice looking ones. I carefully fold them and place them inside a bag in my craft cupboard. There is only ever 5-10 sitting there and every so often I decide that today is the day I will declutter them, but it just doesn’t happen. The only reason I can think of is that when I was a girl my mum used to do the same thing.

At the time the economy was suffering under high inflation, extreme interest rates and a government introduced compulsary car-less day once a week to combat fuel costs. Our town was small and this was before the era of cheap ‘Made In China’ clothing, so mum sewed what she could of our clothing and we accepted and donated hand-me-down clothes, it didn’t bother us and was widely acceptable in our community.

So a pretty shopping bag represented luxury and they were probably still a new thing as I recall a drawer full of folded up paper bags used for everything from lining baking tins to art projects to lighting the fire to holding rubbish. Wherever possible, we passed on our hand-me-down clothes in a nice plastic carrier bag with a shop logo on it. Why I don’t know, as it was only being carried from house to car and car to house and wouldn’t actually be seen by the greater public, but it seemed to be the tradition.

I mentioned this story to a friend over the weekend and she got a smile on her face and told me that she keeps the paper flour sacks, to line baking tins for making fruit cake. The thing is that she has never made a fruit cake. Her mother and grandmother were fruit cake legends but the baking gene completely skipped her, but she still feels a need to keep these paper flour sacks.

Another friend religiously saves seeds from pumpkins and dries them on the kitchen window sill as her mother used to dry hers for planting, but my friend lives in an apartment block and has never had a garden.

So why do we carry on these little traditions from yester year? Who knows? Strangely I feel more of an attachment to these pretty plastic carrier bags than I do towards many other items that I haven’t thought twice about getting rid of.

So what is my strategy to deal with this? Well, the first step is to make sure that no more come into the house, although this is fairly easy as I am not the shopping fiend that I used to be but also to politely decline a plastic carrier bag or if on a shopping trip to utilise one bag for all purchases. Colleen will also advocate that this is good for the environment. I actually had to decline one yesterday – shopping for a school bag – yes, a bag for the bag!

And as for the existing bags? Well, I have a number of items on trademe (like ebay) at the moment, and I will honour my mum’s tradition of passing on clothes and use these for packaging rather than buying postal bags. Ironically this isn’t a cheaper option but it will save me from buying another plastic bag, while these hide in the cupboard.

So does anyone else out there find themselves keeping the strangest of things and if so do you know why?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a couple of trinkets, knick knacks or whatever you like to call them.

Eco Tip for the Day

Choose to live in a walkable neighbourhood with conveniences close by so you don’t have to resort to taking your car out when you need something. I can attest to the fact that this is a fuel and money saver.

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

For this week’s mini missions I have focused on items that collect dust. I am sure I don’t need to tell you yet again about the allergy issues surrounding dust collectors.  I could come up with enough missions for a month on this topic alone but here are six for you to be getting on with.

Monday – I have given the bookworms a bit of a reprieve for a while because I felt I was forever picking on them but the break is over. Books are big dust collectors and also can become quite musty when kept in damp places without good ventilation. So this week how about decluttering ten books from your collection that you are least likely to read again.

Tuesday – Declutter excess plush toys and then wash and air out the ones you keep. This is probably more than a mini mission but it is a job that needs doing occasionally.

Wednesday – Declutter a couple of trinkets, knick knacks or whatever you like to call them.

Thursday – Declutter at least one fabric item that just sits on or drapes over furniture or hangs on a wall. Cushions, throw rugs, curtains, embroideries etc fall into this category. If they aren’t being used chances are they are collecting dust and slowly perishing.

Friday – Declutter a dusty old box of stuff that hasn’t been opened for years. If it has had so little attention then you don’t need or love the contents enough to keep it.

Saturday – Declutter a piece of exercise equipment that you probably ought to be using but aren’t. If you can’t do that then start using it.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

One for the warmer months. Wet yourself in the shower then turn it off to soap yourself then on again to rinse.  Word is that an average of 60 litres of water are use to take a shower. Imagine how much less it could be using this method. I have been doing this during the summer and lo and behold, without my knowing it, my husband had been doing the same. Any wonder out water bill was so low.

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

So what are we going to get rid of this week. I think it is time for a little decluttering in those out of the way places that are easy to ignore. So lets get started.

Monday – Declutter something from the garage, back yard shed or car park storage space.

Tuesday – Declutter something from the basement or attic  if you have one.

Wednesday – Declutter something from the guest room.

Thursday – Declutter something from under a bed, if you store things there. If not choose a place you store seldom used items in.

Friday – Declutter something from a high self in a cupboard or closet.

Saturday – Declutter something from the depths of a kitchen cupboard that is hard to reach the back of.

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t leave your car idling for unnecessary periods of time such as when you pull over to use your cell phone. 10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting your car.

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

As we travel further down the road to minimalism certain things that were, or at least we thought were, useful become clutter as we realise that we really don’t need them. It is all part of the process or should I say progress. Here are some missions that will help you identify some of those items as well as others that build up while you aren’t noticing.

Monday – Declutter a storage container or organising system that you no longer need due to your decluttering. This week I am decluttering a drawer organiser that I no longer need.

Tuesday – Declutter an item you realise you no longer love enough to keep now that you would rather space and simplicity over stuff.

Wednesday – Declutter something that the kids have grown out of or that belongs to a child that has left home. Get their permission first of course.

Thursday – Declutter an item that is only an alternative to another similar item that you now realise you don’t need multiples of.

Friday – Check to make sure useful recyclable items aren’t building up in your home, glass jars, takeout containers, shopping bags, plant pots, biscuit tins, cardboard boxes etc.

Saturday – Start a use it up challenge on something. Even I still find these items at time. Jam or a condiment that wasn’t so popular, shampoo that wasn’t great, other toiletries you just have too many of…

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.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

Drink tap water in preference to carbonated beverages. It doesn’t take a genius to work out how much better that is for the environment. Your waistline and your teeth will thank you for it as well.

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