We all know there are only so many hours in the day. How many of them do you want to spend…

1. …looking for things you need but can’t find among your excess stuff.
2. …looking for things you didn’t put away where they belong.
3. …choosing what to use or wear among an overabundance of stuff.
4. …moving things in order to clean your home.
5. …running around like a mad thing cleaning up every time someone is coming to your home for a brief or long visit.
6. …dusting trinkets that aren’t even really that special to you.
7. …struggling to make things fit into, what ought to be, your more than adequate size home.
8. …shopping for more stuff that you will have to cram in somewhere just for the thrill of having something new.
9. …feeling ashamed of how your home looks.
10. …procrastinating about doing something about it.

What could you spend your precious time doing instead?

1. Relaxing
2. Feeling less stressed.
3. Spending time with friends and loved ones.
4. Creating beautiful things.
5. Exercising
6. Living in the knowledge that anyone could drop in anytime and your home will be tidy and inviting.
7. Enjoy some time in nature, a walk by the beach, hiking or watching your garden grow.
8. Volunteering in your community, This can be very satisfying.
9. Having extra time to focus intently on one task at a time so you get the best result
10. Getting your home in order so you can feel content there.

It may take a little time to get from list A to List B but it will be totally worth it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item of clothing that you don’t feel good in. Be that because of  fit, visual or comfort reasons.

Today’s Declutter Item

South Park Character Costume

Eco Tip for the Day

Organise your weekly menu prior to grocery shopping. This will help avoid extra trips in the car to the grocery store.

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

A Guest Post by ~ Deb J

As I have been following Colleen’s blog and the comments we make I realized something very pivotal for me. By decluttering my home, my clothes, my lifestyle my computer and my mind I am becoming unfettered.

I used to be restricted to having company only when we had time and energy to get out all the china and silver, and put on our “company best.” Everything had to be a production of monumental proportions. The house had to be spotless and so clean you could eat off the floor. This was a leftover from my upbringing, a result of being raised that everything had to be perfect. After all, everyone would be making an inspection and giving points. Right? At least that was what my mother thought. We no longer have the china and the silver. We realize that clean is fine and perfection is something that is never achieved because each person has their own idea of what perfection entails. Entertaining is now based on providing a place of relaxation and fun with a bit of good food thrown in. It can be spur of the moment because all a friend wants is time with you. They don’t care about the accoutrements.

I was restrained by a lifestyle based on what I thought others expected. The 
“Others” were everyone from my parents to people I had never met. Society has a way of making us feel that there is a standard to keep. I always chafed at this idea but felt I had to conform. I was an organized, minimalistic, introverted type person living a cluttered, unordered, noisy life. Everyone had an opinion of how I should live and what I should have. Life was a schedule of long work hours, assorted “must have” devices, assorted “must do” activities, and “must have” contacts. I now soar unfettered. My world is now made up of the work I love to do, the devices that actually make my life easier, the activities I want to be involved in and the friends I enjoy being with. A good walk down the streets of my neighborhood is just as beneficial as an hour at the gym and it has no cost. I don’t have to have a sculptured figure and be able to participate in a triathlon. I don’t have to have a job that pays $100,000 but requires putting in 60 hour weeks with a 24/7 pager and a title. I can be happier with a $50,000 job that requires only 40 hour weeks, has no title, has no pager and doesn’t require me to sell my soul for the company. I don’t need the money so much if I learn to live within my means and I stop thinking I have to measure up to some mythical person.

I am no longer tied down to the expectations set by Martha Stewart or Oprah or “Good Housekeeping Magazine” or my mother or my friends. I can spend my evening quietly with a good book. I no longer find myself involved in an activity every night in order to keep up with the myth. I don’t have to scrapbook every day of my life, take pictures of everyone in attendance at an event, attend every event, maintain a blog, text and instant message, follow every blog about every interest, keep up with the news 24 hours a day, listen to the radio or music all day long, and on and on and on. I’m free to be me not you or you or you.

I used to have a to-do list that never seemed to end. For every item I completed two to three more would crop up. I still keep a few lists. I have a list of things I’d like to have done to the house when we have the money. I have a list of chores I need to complete. I have a list of things I would like to do sometime just for fun. But those lists are just lists. Life can often get in the way of lists. I’ve stopped letting it bug me. I don’t let them tie me down. I’m learning to welcome interruptions because I have learned interruptions can disguise Heaven sent opportunities I would have never thought of.

I’m enjoying being unfettered. Life is so much better.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one vessel that can contain fluid ~ drinking glass, fish tank, bottle, jar…

Today’s Declutter Item

Here are another set of slide clamps, 12 inch ones this time, also sold on ebay. Not every mans garage has to be full of tools regardless of what society might think. I’m with you Deb J to heck with the “rules” we’re doing things our way.

12inch Slide Clamps

Eco Tip for the Day

Be very selective about what you buy so that you are so satisfied with the product that you will use it until it wears out and not trade it in for something else soon after.

“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

Some time back I wrote a post ~ How many is too much ~ which addressed the issue of ~ what is clutter for one person is not neccessarily so for another. Last week I wrote a post ~ Over catering for guests ~ the goal of which was to get my readers thinking about how much stuff do you really need to keep in your home in order to cater for people who are only there a small percentage of the time.

In both these posts I give examples as to what I think is a reasonable amount of items to have for specific circumstances. However it is possible that many of my readers would agree in principal but may well be happy to possess more and in some cases even less than I stated. The suggestions I make here at my blog are a guide only and not some formula that is set in concrete that should be be applied to everyone.

For instance my suggestion last week on towels and sheets stated the bare minimum that I would be comfortable with. Some readers actually have less others more. I have more, although I would be very comfortable with the idea of reducing the numbers should the circumstance arise that I had less space to store them in. In fact I would happily declutter many items in my home in a heartbeat were I to finally find the perfect smaller home to purchase which was the original goal behind my decluttering mission. In fact many such items will likely be decluttered before then.

So basically what I am saying is your declutter goal may be minimalistic in nature while another person’s may simply be about not being embarrassed should guests drop by unexpectedly while yet another person may just want to be able to get to and from their bed without tripping over something.

The key is don’t have a static decluttering goal in mind and stay open to possibilities. In many ways I have reached points along my declutter journey that I hadn’t even envisaged before I set out. Such as…

• Realising I no longer had the desire to acquire stuff. What a freedom that was.
• When I became detached from pointless sentimental clutter . Another wonderful freedom.
• When I realised that so many of the things I had acquired in the past, expecting them to simplify my life, only made it more complicated.
• When I realised that having so many material choices didn’t make my life easer it actually complicated it.
• I believe that relinquishing my attachment to and desire for stuff has taught me to eliminate other control issues in my life.
• I would even say that the process of decluttering a family home has taught me to communicate better.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one rarely used tool or gadget in you home.

Today’s Declutter Item

Who needs a napkin holder when they rarely if ever use napkins. This napkin holder stayed in my house so long not because it was useful but because it was handmade by my son in middle school. When asked he said he had no desire to keep it and didn’t expect me to either.

Napkin Holder

Eco Tip for the Day

Save on electricity by sweeping your hard floors instead of vacuuming them sometimes.

“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

At the end of every school year, I volunteer to take home all the lost and found from my daughters’ school. I look through it, sort it, wash it, fold it, and give it to charity. The amount of lost and found (or as the Head of School calls it, “Lost and Sometimes Found”) is absolutely amazing.  At the end of this school year, I had 20 expensive metal water bottles (one still had a clear $25 price tag on it), a dozen lunch bags in good condition, probably 50 items of clothing worthy of the thrift store, and 5 or 6 coats, including one very nice Columbia brand coat.

Such waste!

Colleen once wrote a post, which I cannot locate, about “What if I had just one?” Just one pencil, just one coat, just one pair of scissors, just one water bottle and one lunch sack?

Overbuying has to be part of the explanation for this phenomena. In my house, the girls have two water bottles each – one large and one small, and they each have one lunch bag. If the bag doesn’t come home, they take their lunch in a plastic sack, which in itself is a reminder to check the lost and found. But if you overbuy, then each item has less value and less chance of staying with its owner.

When my daughters first starting attending school where they had to provide their own supplies, I was absolutely horrified by the list: 2 boxes of 8 markers, 6 glue sticks, 4 packs of post-it notes, and my winner for most ridiculous: 48 pencils. 48 pencils times 15 girls equals 720 pencils per school year per classroom! How many third-world classrooms could be outfitted with 720 pencils? I thought it was because the girls went to private school, but my public school friends told me that their lists were similarly excessive.

Why would you value a single pencil when there are 719 more in your classroom?

It’s so easy to overbuy when things are “2 for 1” or “Buy 1, get 1 at half price”? I know I used to do it too. But it’s just not necessary. It’s bad for the environment, bad for your check book, and devalues each and every item, making each one more likely to be lost, discarded, or shoved to the back of the cabinet.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an aspirational item. Something you aspire to getting around to using or trying one day but you know one day is unlikely to come.

Today’s Declutter Item

I would like to say this is the last of the snow gear but there is still a snowboard out in the garage to list on ebay before that chapter of our lives is behind us. It is one step closer though and that is all that counts. I sold this jacket on ebay on the third attempt.

Ski/Snowboard Jacket

Eco Tip For The Day

Donate or sell under utilised items in your home in the hope that it will prevent someone else, who might have a use for them, from having to buy new.

* * * * * * *

“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

Key #4 Don’t reclutter while you declutter

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 them or if they 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.

Today’s Mini Mission

Recycle something. Perhaps some old greeting cards, maybe some magazines or even plastic take-out containers you thought might find useful one day.

Today’s Declutter Item

I actually declutter four of these bowls not just the two pictured here. I just forget to take a new photo of the four once I decided that I had more than enough small bowls to do the job these are usually used for.

Small Ingredient Bowls

Eco Tip For The Day

If you have a garden purely for aesthetic reasons why not grow plants that require little or no watering. Purifying water uses a lot of energy and chemicals so the less we waste the better.

* * * * * * *

“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

We live in a world ruled by excessive consumerism.

Everyday we receive hundreds of messages that try to make us feel incomplete. They try to sell us the idea that we don’t have enough stuff, so that we go buy more stuff to fill the void and be happy.

These messages use the influence of scarcity to trigger your pains and fears.

The question is: how can you protect yourself from the negative influence of the scarcity mentality.

The answer lies in your ability to sacrifice.

When you make a small sacrifice by getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter, by eliminating the unnecessary and by decluttering your environment, only then simplicity will take over and you’ll experience a major difference in your life.

When you let go of the clutter, you realize that you already have enough and that your soul enjoys more and breathes freely in the new open space you’ve created.

The belief that you already have enough is the essence of minimalism.

“Minimalism is realizing that what I already have is enough, and that adding clutter to the pile won’t make it any better. And chasing a dream of more minimalism is, ironically, not what I’m after either.” – Sarah Peck

When you sacrifice the things you think you need, but never actually use, you will discover and connect with what you truly need, use and like.

There is a very interesting experiment that I’m currently doing and would like to invite you to do it with me. I call it The One Week Closet Experiment. I learned about the idea from Dave Bruno’s book The 100 Thing Challenge.

Here’s how to do this experiment:

1. Open your closet and pick up enough clothes for one week.
2. Store these one week clothes in a separate section in your closet.
3. Over the next week or two, only wear from the items in this section.
4. Share your conclusions in the comments below.

I promise you’ll be hugely surprised by what you’re going to do with the rest of your clothes!

If you’re joining this experiment, please leave a comment now to let me know you’re in.

“I think we have to be not so afraid of scarcity. We have to be willing to give away all things.” – Sharon Stone

Bio: In his blog,  Midway Simplicity, Mohamed Tohami shares mainstream simple living ideas that are not too harsh for your lifestyle.Visit his blog now to grab your free copy of “The 30-Day Simplicity Challenge” ebook.

Today’s Mini Mission

There is usually at least one make-up item among the others that we once thought suited our pearticular kind of beauty but now wonder where we got that idea. If you have such an item but haven’t had the sense to throw it away yet, today is the day.

Today’s Declutter Item

One more kitchen item that wasn’t much loved or much used.

Cane Basket

Eco Tip Of The Day

If you have take-away coffee on a daily or regular basis take your own reusable cup.

“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

A hideous photo of me ready for my last trip with my uncluttered backpack and day bag.

As promised a while back here is the post about how I pack for travelling ~ the uncluttered way of course. I have a couple of golden rules that are the basis to how I pack.

Rule 1 ~ If you don’t need it don’t bring it.

Rule 2 ~ If you don’t need it don’t bring it.

Rule 3 ~ If you can’t stick to rule 1 & 2 then limit the unnecessary items to only those you “can’t live without”.

With those rules in mind I have made a list below of what I would typically pack keeping in mind that we usually prefer to travel in Spring or Fall. This list is also typical whether we are away for one week or two months or more.

Clothing

In addition to the clothes I am wearing when I leave which for me is ~ Long lightweight comfortable pants, a T-shirt (long or short sleeve depending on the weather at destination), my lightweight travel jacket, bra, panties, a pair of socks and comfortable walking shoes ~ this is typical of what I bring…

• Enough clothes for five days ~ I mix this up a bit with one dress, a skirt, 2 pair of pants, a cardigan or  light sweater (depending on weather expected) 5 tops of various types.
• Enough underwear for a week ~ For me that is 1 extra bra, 8 pair of panties,
• Footwear ~ 2 pair of socks (only 1 if warmer climate) and maybe a pair of sandals.

We scout each location or make sure we know ahead of time where we will have access to laundering so we can wash every five days.

Pack clothes that mix and match and can be layered to suit the weather. This way your are never left out in the cold and no matter how few clean clothes you have left they will match and you will stay looking sharp.

Toiletries

• Deodorant ~ Stick or roll-on (my hubby and I will share a unisex fragrance)
• Toothbrush, floss and a small tube of toothpaste (once again sharing the floss and toothpaste)
• Minimal make-up ~ Powder foundation, a small tube moisturiser, brow pencil, mascara, lipstick.
• Shampoo (maybe) depending on where we are going. Shampoo is usually easily enough acquired on arrival and left behind on departure and sometimes it is supplied so we often don’t bother to bring our own.
• Sunscreen *~ travel size.
• Nail clippers
• Razor

Medications

• Any prescribed medications ~ enough for the entire trip (for us this doesn’t amount to much). I sometimes carry a script for antibiotics due to a recurring issue but there is no guarantee that foreign countries will fill these.
• Pain killers *~ Just what I would normally carry in my handbag. More is easily acquired if necessary in the places we usually travel to.

Other

• Cell phone and charger *~ we acquire a sim card at destination.
• Coin purse *~ for cash and debit/credit card* and drivers licence.*
• Passport
• A written list of emergency phone numbers ~ just in case cell phone dies or is stollen.
• 1 microfibre cloth* in a small Snaplock bag for easy clean up.
• 2 medium vacuum seal bags for dirty laundry.
• A small puzzle book and a pen~ for entertainment on flights and during down time.
• Day bag ~ We have a lightweight Rick Steves Shoulder Bag which we carry while sightseeing most days that contains the items with an * mentioned above.
• A tiny sewing kit ~ You would be surprised that we have made use of this on nearly every trip.

My husband carries a similar amount for clothing plus the following

• Camera gear ~ Camera, lenses, battery charger and spare memory card and batteries.
• iPad and charger
• iPod with all our travel details

That is pretty much the total of what we take on vacation. On our last trip to the USA for three weeks my Rick Steves Backpack weighed a mere 5.5kg or 12lb. My day bag with everything in for the flight weighed 680g or 1.5 lb. As you can appreciate this takes very little effort to lug around. We have no problems fitting the backpacks into the overhead lockers in the plane. Therefore we never check our baggage, so no waiting at  baggage carousels at the other end, we just walk off the plane and head straight to our accommodation.

So there you have it. No wheeling heavy suitcases along ancient cobble stoned streets. No struggling up the aisles of crowded trains. No problems if our accommodation is up three flights of stairs. No chance that we have left something in our checked baggage that we needed on the plane. No lost baggage.

Today’s Mini Mission

Take a load of items you have decluttered to the thrift store. I do this once a week when I go to my thrift store to do my volunteer shift. I haven’t been able to drive there for the last four weeks so there was a bit of a backlog.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is one of the things I took to the thrift store last week for decluttering. Over time it had been emptied of its contents and is no longer needed. My plan is to have nothing under beds eventually so I have sent this on its way tout suite so the temptation to use it again is futile.

Iris Split Lid Under Bed Storage Box

Something I Am Grateful For Today

A wonderful lunch celebrating a friends birthday. She was so grateful just to have friends who would want to  celebrate with her. It brought home to me once again what the important things are in life.

“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

I received an email from Di last week which contained this passage…

I’ve got to the deeper layers – it’s not just about clothes… and it’s quite hard. Jewellery (gifted and pretty – just too much – have managed to donate quite a bit), photos (out of 6 albums and a box and now ready to go and be scanned but have discovered loads of digital ones on a hard drive), digital clutter (hard cos it’s not so tangible and takes ages – currently doing a ‘folder’ a day), my christening shawl (beautiful and knitted by my gran but now going to a friend’s daughter who is having a baby), unwanted ‘inherited stuff’ that ‘should’ be worth money (all off to the auction house) and you’ll laugh at this one – concert tickets from the late 80s early 90’s – hard to part with simply cos I’d kept them in the first place and keeping them became a habit, doh!

…which is what inspired this weeks set of mini missions. It got me thinking about things I still have or do out of habit, habits passed down through the generations and habits followed just because they are the norm. Some of these habits are quite futile when you start to dissect them.

Have you noticed that keeping things becomes a habit, like Di and her concert tickets. Once started, collecting habits can be hard to break, even though you might have lost the interest to continue you feel you should. Then when you do, so much history and sentiment is attached to these items yet, not so deep down, you really want to be rid of them and still you just can’t bring yourself to do it. At that point they have become clutter and you have two choices keep them or liberate the space and purge them. It is that simple, and that difficult, and the only person who can make the choice is you. The question is ~ what do you want more?

Then there are habits of the generations. In my parents, grandparents, great grandparents… eras it was the norm to pass down items like crystal, the good china, furniture and other items from one generation to the next. It is still happening to this day but what I have noticed among my readers here is that many of our generation don’t want these items that are usually “kept for good”. This creates a problem in itself ~ you feel obliged to accept these items because it is the custom (habit) to accept what is handed down. Well guess what you once again have choices, you can either conform either wilfully or against your will, you can accept and  use the items anytime not “just for good” or you can just say no, politely of course. Trust me, it is possible, I have done it.

Then there are the habits we have developed through childhood to adulthood simply from the world around us. Habits we don’t think twice about following until such I time comes that we begin for one reason or another to change the way we do things. Take today’s mini mission for example. My entire adult life I have always stocked white sugar, caster (baker’s) sugar, brown sugar and icing sugar in my pantry as did my mother before me. As one gets older too much of a good thing can end up on your waste line so for some time now I have been using low GI sugar in my tea, I also don’t bake sweets much any more, and recently I have started using maple syrup on my porridge (natural sugars, although still naughty, are better for you). It occurred to me last week that I have had the same canisters of white sugar and caster sugar in the pantry for a long time. The last time I bought it was purely out of habit. I have decided to free up a little space in the pantry by using up the white sugar and not restocking it. If a visitor wants white sugar they can use the caster sugar. Perhaps you keep stocking something out of habit that you really could live without.

One of the other things we do out of habit is own certain things simply because everyone else does. The idea of owning few or none of these things just seem weird somehow. Televisions are one of them, even having only one television in a household these days is unusual. As an Australian it is almost unheard of not to own a barbeque. And I know people think I am odd because my dining suite  seats fewer than six people.The fact that I only own one handbag disturbs many of my female friend, and Heaven forbid that it may not match the shoes or belt I am wearing. I think you understand by now what I am trying to say here. Society is broken so why bother trying to keep up with it anyway. Do the environment a favour and march to your own drum.

These are just a few of the things we do out of habit that clutter up space in our homes. Why not spend your week questioning some of your habits, perhaps there is a better way of doing things. It is never too late to change especially when it is for the better.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a consumable item that you don’t use much where an alternate product you also keep will suffice.  Good places to find these items is in your pantry, among your cleaning supplies or your bathroom cabinet.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is a consumable product I had too much of and the silly things is I don’t usually get lazy and do hemming the cheats way anyway. I either sew them by machine or use good old needle and thread. So why did I have so much of this, because it was cheap and I could. That simple and that foolish.

Hemming Tape

Something I Am Grateful For Today

It was another of those days today when I was grateful for my mother and the things she taught me.

“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

Like the title says ~ A picture paints a thousand words ~ so I will keep the text brief on this post and let the photos tell the story. This series of photos show the transformation of my craft space. It has been years in the making but I think I am finally at the point where I am happy to just let natural progression decluttering take over from here. That is, things will now leave as I use them up and not be replaced. So without further adieu please enjoy the photos.

These photos show, more or less, the original state of my craft area

These photos show my craft area after some amount of decluttering

These photos show some decluttering in action. I usually don't make this kind of mess while decluttering but the area needed some serious reshuffling so that is what is happening here.

And this is the end result of years of progressive decluttering. What do you think of that?

And here is a side by side comparison of the before and after of the same space. Even I am stunned at the difference and I have lived through the changes.

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you have too many accessories ~ Belts, bags, scarves, hats, hair adornments…? If so now is the time to weed out a few.

Today’s Declutter Item

Today I am decluttering a bunch of scarves. Quite often one doesn’t know how items will suit until they are worn for a while. These scarves, some made by my loving, caring mother, made me itch and/or sneeze or moulted all over my jackets so they are off to the thrift shop. I will know better next time.

A bunch of scarves

Something I Am Grateful For Today

 Hot cups of tea on cold days. Actually I love hot cups on tea any day but especially on cold ones.

“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

A month ago I asked my readers to send in their requests for post subjects. Lisa sent in the following request,  a subject which I have covered many times before but is always worth revisiting.

Here is Lisa’s comment…

Okay, so I read most of the answers and then stopped. 🙂 So, I kinda feel like I am always decluttering and bringing bags of bags of stuff to the thrift stores and other places, but when does it end? When do we have the right amount of stuff? I just can’t get over that I can still take garbage bags full of stuff out our home.

And here is the  response I left for her…

Hi Lisa,
it ends when you are ready, when you reach the level of simplicity that works for you. I can assure you that the goal posts will just keep moving as you realise more and more, through this experience, that you need a whole lot less than you ever thought you would. Trust me I speak from experience here. I wasn’t sure I would have enough stuff to declutter to keep me going for the first 365 days 0f my pledge to remove one thing a day. Boy was I wrong, two years and three months later I am still decluttering. And it isn’t because a whole lot of new stuff has taken its place, because it hasn’t, it is just that I don’t need the stuff and the more I declutter the more aware I become of that fact. My cupboards are emptier and maintenance is easier and I am loving it and I’m not done yet. So keep at it, you will know when you are done. It is well worth the journey.

Having said that, I have more to add. Only occasionally do I wonder, when will I be done with this decluttering task. As this thought crosses my mind another quickly comes in to take its place and that thought is this ~ How incredible is it that I keep discovering that I can live with even less. I don’t care how long it takes to reach the end of my journey, I don’t even know where that is. What I do know is the I am a changed person for having started down this path.

Before I began I loved getting new things and I enjoyed shopping. Like most people the novelty soon worn off the old stuff and I was left with the desire to replace it with something new and exciting. Now I am free of that need and happy to be so.

Prior to this slow approach to decluttering I was organised, my house was tidy and my finances were in good shape but…

• The cupboards were full of things I didn’t need. I thought I wanted them but now I know better.
• I spent more time cleaning than I needed to because there was more things to dust and more items to move in order to mop and vacuum. There were also those periodic cleaning tasks required due to the hard to get at places packed with stuff we didn’t need.
• I wasted money on things I didn’t really need.
• I wasted space on things I didn’t use.
• I was harsh on the environment by adding to the supply and demand of products that were unnecessary.

Decluttering used to be about removing the stuff I didn’t use or that the kids had grown out of or that we just didn’t like anymore only to eventually be replace with more stuff we soon stopped using, fitting or liking. Now it is about actually reducing permanently, having more environmentally sustainable habits and the freedom of the desire for stuff. I am liberated.

Join me on my journey, you won’t be sorry you did.

Today’s Mini Mission

Now that I don’t work and rarely dress up I don’t see any point in keeping so many of the jewellery pieces I made myself. Perhaps you have jewellery that could be decluttered today or maybe some other fashion accessory that not longer suits you or your current lifestyle.

Today’s Declutter Item

Now I know you are probably all thinking ~ Hasn’t this women told us to declutter jewellery about a dozen times already and now she comes out with this stash. What the… I know, I know! But jewellery doesn’t take up much space and I had bigger fish to fry OK! 😉 😆 I have to admit this is only about 1/3 of my stash. I have long ago decluttered the precious jewellery pieces that I never wear and the box I kept it in but I was in no hurry with this lot. I am sure I will declutter more of it before I am done but all in good time. Just remember “one thing a day”.

Letting go of some handmade jewellery

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I had a lovely day at the thrift store today, see all my friends there that I haven’t seen for three weeks. I tagged and prices all that jewellery from photo above and several pieces had sold before the day was out. Ahh, the joy of letting go.

“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