My surname is Madsen, that’s M A D S E N. It is simple, two syllables, no extra letters that have no purpose, easy to read. So why do you think that most people, when confronted with this name, whether in plain print or spoken to them, automatically complicate it. Nine times out of ten people will pronounce it Marsden, Maddison or even Mathison.

I think I know why. Because these three other names are more common in Australia. So people revert to the norm rather than repeat what is said to them or written in front of them. That is the problem with “The Norm”, it is the usual way of things, acted upon by the bulk of the population whether it makes sense or not.

The Norm is…

1. Buying stuff whether we need it or not.
2. Replacing that stuff with new stuff when we tire of it or something “better” comes along.
3. Keeping the old stuff when the new stuff comes along requiring progressively more space to store it all in.
4. Hiring off-site storage when your dwelling becomes too small to store all the stuff.
5. Needing two incomes and working 50+ hour weeks to pay for all this stuff and the mortgage.

What is meant to be the simple life (like my simple name) becomes more and more complicated the more “normal” we behave.

You know what is more fun than normal, being different. I love being different. I love the stunned looks on peoples faces…

1. When I talk about how I have been decluttering my belongings for three years.
2. How I don’t buy things unless I really have a need for them.
3. That I prefer not to receive gifts.
4. That I prefer to live in a smaller home.
5. That I only have one handbag.

The beauty of going against the norm is that the clutter stops flowing in. My money isn’t wasted on stuff I don’t need. And I don’t have to work my butt off to afford a lifestyle that is different but quite wonderful. Granted my husband is still working full time but at the ripe old age of fifty even he can considering semi-retirement.

Dare to be different.

Today’s Mini Mission

Complete a project ~ Finish a project you started some time ago but haven’t added the finishing touches to. You can then either use it, gift it or donate it. Just this weekend I restrung some beads my mother had sent home with me about two years ago. She is coming to visit me this week for a couple of days and I can finally give the revamped necklace back to her. That frees up a little space and removes the guilt of it sitting there unfinished. 

Eco Tip for the Day

Keep a jug in your kitchen sink to save the water that would otherwise go to waste when waiting for the hot water to come through. This water can be used as drinking water, to fill the kettle, rinse dishes, water plants, rinse the sink etc.

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

Our apartment deal fell through. Although the owner had accepted our offer and we were about to sign the initial contract, he received a last minute higher bid and reneged on our deal. So for now we are staying put. I prefer to be philosophical and say that perhaps it wasn’t meant to be and something better is around the corner. But really we are very disappointed and for the moment will just lick our wounds, chalk it up to experience and look forward to our seven week vacation. So I guess life isn’t so bad.

The premature excitement did however spur me on to getting rid of and swapping out  a few more items around the house. Some old towels from the second bathroom are off to the thrift shop. A framed caricature of my daughter is now at her house. My husband bought a “new” secondhand office chair which is better for his posture but also more streamline than the old one. The old one found a new home at my daughters house. We also downsized my husbands desk to an old recycled sewing machine table. Our daughter once again benefitted from this exchange and now has herself a very nice American poplar table for folding her laundry on. I have also set aside my electric trains to find a new home for, and some old broken silver jewellery that I will give to anyone who wants it at the lapidary club in my neighbourhood. I also donated some of my handmade jewellery to the thrift shop.

I remain optimistic that we will eventually find our new home but for now I will keep slowly reducing what we have so that we are bound to be ready when the moment arrives.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a piece of jewellery.

Eco Tip for the Day

When entertaining, rather than resort to disposable crockery and cutlery, use all the non-disposable items you have on hand, if necessary borrow more from family, neighbours or friends or get the guests to bring their own. I put on the occasional neighbourhood get together and all guests are instructed to bring their own cups, plates, and cutlery. They never turn down the invitations so I guess they don’t mind.

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

Deb J

So you are ready to declutter but you have some issues. There are problems with decluttering some things in your home. What would you do in the following cases?

You have over one hundred rolls or pieces of ribbon. They are black, white, reds, yellow, greens, blues, pinks, purples, gold and silver. They are of various types but all are for sewing or crafts. They hang on the wall in a well made, wood cassette tape holder with room for 100 tapes. You haven’t used any of this ribbon in almost a year. Much of it has never been opened. You want to get rid of it. Someone in the family doesn’t want you to.

Someone in your family at one time collected stamps from all over the world. Now you have a package of about 1000 and no one has done anything with them but collect them. They aren’t in an album. They aren’t properly mounted. You don’t know if they are worth anything. The collector no longer wants them.

Your father collected coins. Not the kind that came all nicely packaged but just circulated coins received in change at the store. Do you spend them, try to sell them or pass them to someone in the family?

Your grandparent died 20 years ago and left you a beautiful antique dresser with a marble inset. You have kept this dresser and carried it with you through several moves. It doesn’t go with your “style” so it is always kept back in a room where it seldom is seen. What do you do with it?

All of these scenarios are real. All of them have potential problems attached to them. Give us some input on how you would handle one to all of them.

Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter a clothing or footwear item.

Eco Tip for the Day

As adults it is our job to teach our children to conserve power and water. If you raise your children with good habits now conservation will come naturally to them when they become the adults themselves.

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

Here is a little example of how my decluttering strategies are helping me in the task of compiling my household inventory.

As you know I have been working away slowly and steadily on this household inventory for a while. Before I began my husband transferred the inventory from our last move, back to Australia from America, into a new program. This inventory did not include the items that had been left behind in storage while we were in America, or items we have purchased since. And of course this old inventory contained many many items that I have long since decluttered. And some items had changed location within the house.

It really was a toss up as to whether to start afresh, with a new inventory, and input everything or delete items from the old one and continue on from there. It was a close decision but we decided that it would be easier in the long run to take the second option. And I didn’t mention that as a result of all of this deleting, moving and probably poor original labelling, there is quite a bit of faffing about to get it right. Also our deadline may be looming sooner than we thought, so a girl can get in a bit of a panic. You know, the sort of panic some people feel when they first begin decluttering when they step back, view the big picture and think ~ This is all too hard.

That feeling started to creep up on me this morning while working on the inventory of our living room items. However I stopped my mild panic in its tracks by shaking myself off and taking a moment to regain order in the face of chaos. All I needed to do was focus on one area at a time. Just like I always suggest here at 365 Less Things when it comes to decluttering.

So I stopped took a look at the walls of the room, compared that to my inventory and added anything that was missing. I then looked around at the furniture in the room and checked that off. That left me with the furniture pieces that held stuff. I then went meticulously through one piece of furniture at a time checking off and adding. I left post-it note markers on each shelf as I completed the count. Once done I moved onto the next shelf and then the next piece of furniture.

As I went along I encountered the odd thing that belonged to my husband that I wasn’t sure of the value of or how he wanted to list them ~ as a job lot or individually. I made a list of these items and will ask him about them this evening.

I was cruising along so smoothly with this strategy that the room was complete in no time and I happily moved on to another area of the house.

As you can see, this is the same approach I advocate when it comes to decluttering…

• Just focus on one thing or one area at a time.
• Make a plan ahead of time on how you are going to work systematically through an area, if that is likely to help things go smoothly.
• Make a list of items that you encounter, that aren’t yours to decide on, then later ask other family members about them. You can easily go back and declutter these items if the choice is to let them go.
• Don’t be in a rush. You know the old saying ~ The more haste the less speed. ~ well it is often the case.

So today I practiced what I preached and all went well.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one thing that you know hasn’t been used in a very long time that really isn’t necessary.

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t ignore dripping taps. Replace the washers as soon as possible.

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

Today I am going to suggest five scenarios, that you can imagine you are a part of, that would likely force you to be more ruthless with your decluttering. You find an area in the house that you feel could do with some decluttering, and I will set the scene for a situation that would, if it were reality, make you let go of some items you might otherwise keep just because you have the space.

Scenario One: Your kids have left home and you have just had an offer, out of the blue, from someone who would like to buy your house. It is a very generous offer and you have been thinking of downsizing for some time. You have viewed a very attractive two bedroom apartment recently that you could imagine yourself living it. You look at your stuff and think what would I have to get rid of if I were to move into something smaller. What among this stuff could I find quite easy to live without should it not be likely to fit in?

Scenario Two: You have just brought a new puppy home and it is an indoor dog. You need a space to be able to leave it at home alone, at times, without it chewing up stuff. One room needs to be quite clear of items it can get at. So everything that is at danger either has to go or fit into another room in the house. What items would you give up to make this work?

Scenario Three: You are fifty-five years old and are already on the waiting list for a hip replacement. The reality is you aren’t getting any younger and your body isn’t as young and agile as it used to be. But joyfully it also isn’t old and decrepit either. This hip replacement is however a warning signal that there are certain tasks that aren’t going to get any easier as you get older. So now is the time to start getting your affairs in order. Not ten or fifteen years down the track when mobility could possibly become a real issue. What can you do now to make life easier for you in the future? What items can you start eliminating so it makes cleaning, organising and access easier?

Scenario Four: There is a new baby in the household. Whether that be your household or the baby is a grandchild that will be visiting. Soon enough the little darling will be mobile and able to get their sweet little hands on anything at their level. As wonderful as the idea sounds ~ “They just have to learn not to touch things.” ~ do you really want to have to be ever vigilant during that learning period. Or would it be easier for everyone if you just declutter items that you don’t need or care much for, to make it easy to move everything breakable out of hands way? What can you declutter from your higher and lower shelves so that what is important can be neatly displayed out of reach?

Scenario Five: You have just lost a loved one in your family and you have been helping in the process of sorting out the estate. Clearing out the home of this much loved relative has been a real eye opener. Oh, the things you have had to sort through. Items you aren’t sure are valuable or not. Personal items that would have been best left personal. Old correspondence that you just don’t have the time to read through and decide what is worth saving for family history reasons. Wardrobes full of clothes that clearly haven’t been used in years. A shed full of stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day since this loved one lost their male spouse ten years earlier. And just the usual household items that seem far too abundant for someone who had so few to cater to on a daily basis. Do you want to leave the same mammoth task for someone to clear away should something happen to you. You think not, so what do you have in your home that no longer suits your lifestyle and probably never will again?

Use one or more of these scenarios to help see your stuff in a different light and use that to guide you in letting go.

Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter a small section of a cupboard anywhere in your home.

Eco Tip for the Day

When you are out and about and there is no provision to recycle bring your items home if possible and not ridiculously inconvenient

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

One thing is for sure, as my home has become more and more decluttered, taking care of it has become easier and easier. Having a place for everything and everything in its place is a cinch. Here are the basic rules I follow to keep my stuff, neat, convenient and under control.

Keep things in the most logical location for your needs.

Store items near to where they are going to be used so they are handy when you need them. Baking pans near the oven, cups and mugs near the kettle,printer paper near the printer, your keys by the door you usually enter and leave from, with your wallet or handbag close by etc.. And remember I did say your needs, you don’t have to follow convention, you do what works best for you.

Allocate the prime position in a location to those items that are used most frequently.

It is natural instinct to follow this strategy. If something is being used often you will want to get at it quickly and easily, so store it in the easiest to reach place. When I say this I of course mean ~ away neatly unless you are actually using it. For example ~ If your kitchen cupboards are deep put the most used stuff to the front of the shelf (on leave it on the bench).

Centralise the storage of items that are used in multiple locations.

To make it easy to know when you need to purchase certain supplies,that are used in more than one location in your home, store the bulk of them in one location and meter them out as needed. For example, keep the bulk of your toilet rolls in the most logical location while only have two or three rolls in each toilet area. Keep the bulk of spare toiletries in one bathroom and share them out as necessary. Keep the bulk of office supplies in the office while only having the minimum basic items in their most used areas in the house.

Don’t overbuy.

Following on from the previous suggestions, don’t over stock items. It is my experience that the more of something that there is in the home the less care and frugality is lavished upon them. For Example, if items like office supplies appear to be in reasonably low quantities (one stapler, one whole punch, a half dozen spare pens, two erasers… for example) they are more likely to be returned to their rightful place when finished being used. And they are more likely to be used less generously or cherished, for want of a better word, making them less likely to be wasted or swallowed up somewhere in the house, car, school bags, messy desk, breakfast bar etc. . I use this tactic when it comes to hair elastics. The less of them I own the more careful I am not to lose them.

Not to mention the fact that the less spares of things you have the smaller the storage space they will take up. Of course what is a reasonable supply of anything will vary from one family to another.

Declutter unnecessary items on a regular basis.

It is always easier to get at what you need, store everything neatly and keep things tidy, if you don’t have a home full of stuff that is nothing more than just in the way. This is especially so for those items that keep coming in, such as paperwork and anything child related. Weed out the out dated and out grown as the new stuff comes in, as well as doing a regular declutter in these areas.

Put things back when you are finished with them.

All the storage planning in the world is not going to help you if you don’t put things back where they belong when you are done using them. One only needs logic to plan storage but it takes effort to stay organised. Many people who think they have no organisational skills may simply be neglecting this important part of the cycle of organisation.

So if you wish to be organised start by making space to manoeuvre your stuff. Then, once there is room, rearrange your stuff to what is most convenient to you. Make a habit of returning items to their place once done with. Maintain or continue with your decluttering and tweak the arrangement as desired. Following this regime you will soon realise that you are an organiser after all, and that it doesn’t take some special talent.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that came free with something else but you have never used it. My son’s current motorbike came with a touring bag which he has never used nor expressed any desire to use. My daughters partner however has a need for one of these, so it seems logical and practical to pass it on to him since he will get good use out of it.

Eco Tip for the Day

Take care of the things you do own so that they may last and last and not have to be replaced prematurely.

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

Sometimes in our homes we have items that on first inspection seem to be either beautiful, useful or truly sentimental to us or a combination of those values. These items have either gone under the radar or passed the clutter inspection and survived previous culls.

However as we continue on our declutter journey we tend to become more ruthless causing us to be more selective about what really is useful, beautiful or of sentimental value to us. Having experienced how good simplicity feels, our desire to continue on that path can easily eclipse old feelings of sentimentality or opinions of beauty or usefulness. This creates thought patterns that allow us to part with things that once upon a time we would possibly not have considered letting go. We question these items each time we encounter them, testing through a process of enquiry as to whether they will stay or go.

This strategy works the same whether you are not far along on your decluttering journey or almost at the end of it. It simply boils down to whether something really warrants a space in your home. And some items don’t pass this close scrutiny. Here are some examples of the scrutinising process below.

1. I have a throw rug that my mother gave me. It has survived the cut so far because it is pretty and it performes the, not so important, task of tying the colour scheme of my living area together, and because it was made for me. What it hasn’t done is perform the task it was made for, that is keeping me warm on cold evenings. You see it makes me itch and sneeze so I can’t use it. My son did use it when he lived he but he has since left home. It got in the way when anyone wanted to sit in the chair that it was draped over. It often slipped off onto the floor. And I have plenty of other throw rugs. In the end all I am really keeping it for is because my mother made it for me and that isn’t enough of a reason. Result:~ I have offered the rug to my children. One had more than enough rugs already and the other had the same itch problem with it that I did so I have decided to donate it to the thrift shop.
2. I had a flour sifter that used to belong to my grandmother. It did the task that it was made for and it had sentimental value for me. But the reality was that I hardly ever baked anymore and, for the occasions when I did, I could use one of the other two more versatile sieves that I had in my kitchen. I also didn’t need this item to remind me of my grandmother, I think of her often anyway. I decluttered the sieve and haven’t missed it.
3. I have a big cooking pot. It is actually a pasta pot which included a slotted insert and also a colander. For years I have kept this set together simply because it came as a set and because it took up no more room whether I declutter parts of it or not. I can’t remember if I ever used it to cook pasta so the slotted insert was almost never if ever used. Also the colander was badly designed with a handle that if held while straining anything hot would result in some painful scalding of ones hand. Sanity prevailed some time ago when I finally broke up the set and donated the parts, I didn’t use, to the thrift shop. Perhaps I should have asked myself these questions sooner ~ Do I use all the parts? Are they even well designed? Would I miss any of the useless-to-me items if I broke up the set? and Is it likely that I am suddenly going to change my cooking habits and wish I had kept these items? The answers were no no no and doubtful, once I finally did ask them of myself. Now when we use it we don’t have to remove all those useless-to-us parts that once nested inside of it.
4. I have a camphor wood chest that I have owned since I was 15 years old. It holds our spare blankets and duvets and some sentimental items from when my children were small (that also come under scrutiny periodically). It is hand carved and the rich warm wood colour suits our décor and I like it. Here are the questions I ask myself about this chest. ~ Is it useful to me? Yes. Could I do without it? Yes, there is plenty of room in the closets to store the items in it. Will it fit in a smaller dwelling should we finally make that move? Possibly not. Am I going to declutter it? Not now, I like it, I feel good about it and it is serving a purpose for now.

Use these examples to help you ask question of your stuff. Don’t be afraid to put your items under scrutiny, be honest with yourself over this and make the right decision for you in the moment. There will always be an opportunity to revisit your decisions again later if you feel you want to continue simplifying.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some wall art. I have a set of eight canvases with photos attached from trips we have made to Europe. We have more than enough wall art so I offered these to my daughter last week and she said she would take them. She is coming to dinner tonight so now is as good a time as any to take them down off the wall and give them to her.

Eco Tip for the Day

Why not engage your eco friendly habits in your work place. Scout around to find ways to save water and electricity while at work. Suggest changes to you boss and coworkers. Don’t be deterred if your ideas are met with rejection just do what you can do and hopefully others might follow suit in their own time.

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

So I tend to bite off more than I can chew. A few months ago the opportunity to have everyone out of the house for a weekend seemed like the perfect time to do some major cleaning up. I had high hopes. I was going to tackle the worst room in the house. It was filled floor to ceiling with boxes from the move and just had enough floor space to walk a thin path around it. Since the move had taken place some five years before I had the brilliant idea that it would be no sweat to clear out that area.

But where to start? I mean of course you wanted to start near the door so you could make sure you had room to actually get things in and out but What then? Well, I started out at the door. To the right of the door was a large bookshelf filled with odds and ends and stacked on top of the shelf were old boxes. I managed to get a step ladder and started from the top. The boxes were very heavy and I barely made it safely to the floor with them. I imagined they were books or something equally as hefty. As I opened them I discovered they were VHS tapes. Boxes and boxes of VHS tapes.

The hoarder in me wanted to save them as I had invested a lot of money completing my collection but I was reminded of my vow to stop collecting things. Things are not important. People and memories are. If I really wanted to remember a particular video I could just take a photo of it and remind myself to look it up later. I did, however, go through the boxes and take out the recordings of my family. I did not want to toss out memories, just junk. That took me some time and I hauled the boxes down the stairs and out to the street.

Moving on, I went through the rest of the bookshelf. I had three boxes with me. One was marked Goodwill, one was Trash and the last, smallest box was Keep. I went through those shelves ruthlessly tossing almost all of the junk into the goodwill pile. Broken dishes, bits of paper and so on went into the trash. That went quickly and I was relieved. Beyond the bookshelf was a walk in closet. It wasn’t the biggest closet, about the size of a twin bed. However it was packed with old clothes and more boxes, big ones.

I got the boxes down one by one. The first few largest ones were filled with blankets. Twin, King, Queen, quilts and throws and everything in between. Some I recognized as belonging to my great-grandmother and I set them aside. Others were down and were perfect for winter. The rest I threw in the Goodwill box. Although it is good to have extra blankets on hand I though three large boxes full was going a bit overboard. Especially when we had not used the in five years. Throw pillows, stuffed animals and other small soft things were in the next box. Then I got to the hard part. Boxes of photos and papers.

The photos had to be kept, of course, although I was not going to volunteer to sort through them and create an album. The papers were old enough that they could be tossed safely and I tossed as quickly as I could. A box of my old things from college was next and I couldn’t help but hold on to a relic or two. A small box of old comics went into a pile for eBay along with a few collectable toys.

All the dust was really starting to make my eyes water and I dragged some things downstairs for a break. Gathering a mask and washing my hands I ventured back into the never ending closet. The clothes were next on my list. I brought up trash bags and just started to go through the clothes one by one. Easter dresses, graduation gowns, old sweaters, Halloween costumes and anything else you probably would not miss packed the closet. The packed bags filled the floor of the closet and I was forced to drag everything out to my car before continuing. Exhausted and only halfway through with the closet I called it a night.

The next day I started up again. I finished the clothing leaving only a few outfits to decorate the bare walls. Before I could move on however I had to address the growing pile of bags and boxes in my living room. Far more than could fit in the trunk of my car I had to figure out a way to get them to Goodwill. I finally got my neighbor to drive a load up in the back of his pickup and we managed to get the whole thing done in one go.

When I returned to finish up the room I felt defeated. I had barely scratched the surface in a day and a half of steady work. On top of that the break from the family had been cut short and they were due back any minute. I forced myself to straighten up and make sure the walking path was navigable again. Thoroughly disgusted I felt like I had wasted my time. But then I thought about how much I had gotten rid of. Hundreds of pounds of junk was no longer in my house. Even though it might not look like much, it was that much less I would have to deal with in the future.

The experience also inspired me to tackle my own closet. It was much smaller and less daunting then the one I had already done. With only an hour or two of work I was able to get my closet in great shape and feel like I had accomplished something.

Beyond just cleaning up that closet I also learned a valuable lesson. Even good stuff that is stored away becomes bad stuff eventually. There is no sense in keeping things you are not going to use. It only makes it that much harder on you later. Now I have started to just throw away things that do not have to be kept. I try to get at least one bag a week in my trunk and off to Goodwill. This helps me to keep the clutter from building up again. Hopefully one day I can get the clutter in my home under control, but until that point I will try my best to not add to it.

I have started to think of clutter like the chains in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Every day we build a new link in the chains that bind us when we continue to let junk build up in our lives. The only way to break free is to stop building the chains and start working to undo them.

Author Bio:

This post is contributed by Linda Bailey from housekeeping.org. She is a Texas-based writer who loves to write on the topics of housekeeping, green living, home décor, and more. She welcomes your comments which can be sent to b.lindahousekeeping @ gmail.com.

Today’s Mini Mission

Repair something that has been sitting useless so it can become useful again.

Eco Tip for the Day

Take a few lesson on sewing and/or simple handyman tasks. This way you can repair things rather than throwing them out and buying a new one. My local hardware store give free lessons or repairing and repurposing, maybe yours does too.

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

Deb J

A quick apology to Deb J and the readers who wondered why her 4th Thursday post wasn’t published last week. Silly me! I forgot. Goodness only knows why because Deb’s posts give me a day off each month and you would think I would look forward to that. 

I’d had this soft, cuddly Ground Hog Beanie Baby since 2002. On Ground Hog day that year I had a new job and the company had a celebration because we had supposedly survived the “go live” of four new programs as well as new phones. One of the people I worked with had given all of us in management one of these little toys.

I had a small cloth rabbit that was the start of a rabbit collection I didn’t want. It was from a very close friend and I really liked the rabbit when I first received it. I just didn’t want a collection of rabbits. I’d had it for many years. I never see the friend anymore because we live far apart but she will always have meaning in my life.

I had this cute rabbit sitting on a chair that another friend had given me. I received it several years ago and it had meaning because at the time this friend was a rabbit collector herself. She’s still my best friend but one of the few people I know who is just as much a declutterer as I am.

I had a small quilted rectangle with scripture on it. I had made it many years ago and then made more to give to friends. It was very special at the time because of the circumstances in our lives back then. It was old and worn.

The day I wrote this post I took pictures of all of these items. As I was looking over items with the idea of decluttering them I realized that while they had meaning they didn’t really need to be kept. Having a picture of them would remind me of the person or occasion they were from and the object itself could be passed on or trashed. They just sat on a shelf collecting dust. The ONLY time I looked at them was when I was dusting them or when I had to move them to get to the books behind them.

I’m not sure I even need the pictures. But since they are just taking up a small bit of space on my hard drive right now, I can take some time to think about them. It’s easy to pull up a picture and decide if I need it. I do that about once a month. If I decide to keep it then it goes into one of the files I have on my computer for pictures. If not, it gets deleted. Simple. Easy. I’ve been doing a lot of this lately—taking pictures, holding them a while and most being deleted. I don’t need an item to remember people who are/were special to me. I’ve got a good memory for things like that.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter electric garage or craft tools that aren’t useful enough to warrant keeping. I won’t make a list of these as they are so many and varied.

Eco Tip for the Day

Let your fingers do the driving. When there is something you need to shop for, phone ahead to make sure the store has what you are after rather than making a wasted trip. Every small amount of petroleum product saved is a good thing.

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

When you have been a clutterer for a long time, decluttering never seems to end. Reading posts and articles I found that there is always room for improvement. Last year I was very much upset with my bedroom, but I had no idea where to start. Frustrated I asked Colleen for help and she told me to make a plan. My bedroom didn’t just need a declutter, it needed a new life. I always felt a mess in my bedroom. Not a nice feeling to have at all in one’s sleeping place! So I started to point out to myself what were the trouble areas: the furniture in a whole, the excess stuff I put off dealing with and crammed into my bedroom and my excess clothing, my husband’s excess clothing, my load of shoes and this and that and lots of bits and pieces. One of the first things I did to help me declutter was to establish my “Untouchable box”. So, treasures secure, time to tackle whatever else was in the bedroom.

The first item to go was the rack you see in these pictures.

It does look lovely empty, but it never had such luck being in this house. It was my husband’s “throw” place. I will explain: “I will use it later: throw over the rack; It is a tiny little piece of something I am fixing one day: throw over somewhere in the rack; It is a piece of iron/plastic/wood/whatever I might need one day in my life in a future I can’t envision: throw it in the rack!” However, my husband bought the rack and it was a piece of furniture from his single days (the only one left). I thought I would first gradually declutter the things in the rack, then I would donate it, but I found out that, in this case, Moni’s hurricane method was all for the best: I emptied the thing and called someone to take it out of my house immediately. The things I wanted to keep soon found their rightful home (some CDs that I had a nice place to put, for they were not so many) and some toiletry that should not have be there. Most things, stored there “just because”, are now gone. I still have some things I have to deal with that are sitting on my closet floor, but in no way resemble the mess that rack contained…

I had this lovely bed. However the mattress had seen better days. As I have a bad back I can’t stand a bad mattress for too long. So when a night’s sleep started ending with back pain, I knew it was time to have a new mattress. As I was contemplating a new mattress I had the idea for a trunk bed. It would store all of my heavy bed covers (blankets, comforters, extra pillows, bedspreads) and leave my wardrobes free to hold only clothing. First of all, before going out to buy the new trunk bed and mattress I found a buyer for the old bed. I had a double bed and wanted an upsize to a Queen. It would be more comfortable for me and my husband. I sold the bed and gave away the mattress for free.

However there is a catch to this changing beds – the bed linen. I always thought I did not have enough bed linen but boy, was I wrong! As I was moving things to put in my trunk bed I started to unearth (I was digging things out from a wardrobe!!!!) lots and lots of bed linen. I gave to a relative six complete sets of sheets for a double bed. These were in excellent condition. Then I donated four complete sets that weren’t so good. And I still donated incomplete sets that added up to 7 or 8 extra sheets. I could have opened a motel!!! I had no idea I had this many sets of sheets. There were also old pillows and lots of other stuff as you can see in the pictures.

Maybe you will ask me: why didn’t you look? Didn’t you change the beds? Well I am ashamed to say I did not want to look. I knew it was a lot, but I could not bring myself to part with any of it. Some I bought on impulse, some were gifts from my grandmother and most of the good ones were not even used a lot because they had to be saved for better days…Whatever that means because I saved a set of sheets for ten years and used it once before donating it because it did not fit my bed anymore.

I have decluttered, this time 65 items, including in this count the bed and the rack. Back in January I declutterd almost 80 items including clothes and some small stuff like earrings (small stuff does take up space as Colleen said here) all featured in the pictures.

Well, this was the first part of bedroom declutter. I am, by no means finished. I still have two massive wardrobes to take care of, but hey, soon enough news will come on that front.

Today’s Mini Mission

Dust around the frames of all of the wall art or photo frames you have hanging on the walls in your home. I do this at least every two weeks. A slightly damp microfibre cloth is the best tool I have found to do this job, as it will not only hold any dust it encounters but will also give the glass a nice polish. Glass on the walls can tend to get grimy over time if not wiped regularly.

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