Forgive me for being a little deep and meaningful with today’s topic but there is plenty of truth in the message I am trying to convey.

Clutter is often the physical manifestation of something Psychological.

Three examples of the psychological motivation behind accumulating stuff

• Vanity : “Showing off” stuff because you think it makes you look somehow better to others.
• Insecurity : “Keeping” stuff to make you feel like you are prepared for any situation that may arise.
• Unhappiness : “Substituting” stuff, to make up for, something else missing in your life.

I am sure we have all fallen prey to at least one if not all of these weaknesses at one time or another.

Take a look at the stuff you are having trouble parting with. Consider for a minute why you acquired these items in the first place and what is stopping you from parting with them. Acknowledge the emotions at play here and free yourself of the burden that binds you to the object. You are better than that and you don’t need it so let it go.

But in the case of this drill, we just have more than one so this one has to go.

I heard somewhere recently that it only take two weeks to start breaking out of old habits. The idea being, if you can persevere and ignore the cravings to continue in your old habit for two weeks, you will start to notice physically and mentally the change in your behaviour at this point and start to realise you can cope with the changes.

Hoarding is a bad habit that most of us have an addiction to to some degree. A bad habit that for the sake of a neat and clutter free environment we need to break.

According to the two week rule mentioned above once we set our mind to de-cluttering instead of hoarding we should be able to break the habit in a very short time. So ignore the craving to collect and push ahead with the process of ridding your home of unnecessary stuff and before you know it you will be cured.

I must say after 87 days of my resolution to de-clutter I am surely cured and can’t wait to find the next thing in my home to give away, throw away or sell off.

Just to prove my point today I have sorted through my scrapbook magazines with a little more ruthlessness this time and found another pile I am willing to part with that I wasn’t so sure of only two days ago.

It can be very helpful to read about other peoples experiences with de-cluttering their homes. There are so many helpful tips out there on the big Wide World Web and I will explore more of them and add some more links on my page as I find time.

I have noticed while reading a few over the last couple of days that the biggest mistake for most people is setting to0 high goals. I believe, one day at a time, one room at a time, one drawer at a time are often goals easier reached and less daunting to consider.

Do what works for you and if something looks too much to handle move to another area that you feel more comfortable with. Some days you will be keener than others tackle the big jobs then.

Today while writing my blog I scanned my craft area knowing that there must be something there that could go. I found an old binder  with school photos in. I have three perfectly good photo archive boxes that these photos could easily fit in, so I moved the photos to there and have put the binder in the donation box. Now I have a nice space where I can put the birthday card file that has been crammed somewhere else untidily for months.

We have all seen advertisements for product that enticed us into believing that “I just can’t do without that!” and “I must have one!”  We have fallen in love with the idea that the advertisement is selling. I say idea because even though the idea is great that doesn’t mean that the product is going to live up to the expectation that you have drawn up in your head.

The tip today to save you money and wasted space is to get on your computer and look for product reviews for these “must have” items before you rush out to buy them. Granted you can’t always believe the reviews either but if there is any doubt that the item won’t live up to your expectations and is probably just going to become a dust collector in you home, then you need to think twice about buying it.

I need a new mixer at the moment but the one that seems to suit my need the best doesn’t have good reviews so I am taking my time looking for alternatives that may work better for me. Lets face it if it is something you don’t need immediately you can take a bit of time to shop sensibly.

My item for today is an old pair of reading glass I have kept “just in case” but the nose rest are broken off and that causes irritation to my skin. It is time to go.

On January 15th my give-away for the day was wedding invitations that I made for a friend’s daughter’s wedding. My husband said that was a cop out and not really purging anything yet I thought this was one of my best donations yet. You see I have a lot of papercrafting items such as tools, cardstock , paper, adhesive, embelishments…. but I really haven’t been doing a lot of papercrafting lately.

I have previously made the invitations for the engagement party and when I was asked to do the wedding invitations I thought what a great oportunity to contribute to their special event and purge some of the supplies I had sitting useless in cupboards and drawers.

This generous offer of time, effort and supplies made me feel good not only because of the purge but because I have saved the couple quite a few dollars as well and enjoyed the creative outlet.

Don’t forget the object of this exercise of 365 less things. The contribution doesn’t have to be big it just has to be everyday to make a difference.

Today’s object was another item we sold on eBay.

Another place that I have found lots of the same thing tends to accumulate over time is in the bathroom cabinet. Bottles of moisturiser in particular have this tendency. Someone gives you one as a gift, you pick up a couple at a motel you stayed at or a friend has a Body Shop party and you feel obliged to buy something and so on until there are five slightly used bottles/tubes you use on a rotational basis taking up a lot of space. My solution is to chose one today use it and only it until it is empty then move on to the next one until you are down to one and only buy another when that one is about to run out. This is only one little de-clutter but every little thing helps in the quest to getting organised and making space.

Goodbye to another sports item that hasn’t been used for years

Rule number one of de-cluttering…

Just because you have something that was given to you as a gift doesn’t mean you can’t get rid of it.

A quick story to emphasise this point. When moving house once when I was a teenager we were packing up a clock that had hung on the kitchen wall for as long as I could remember and for just as long it had been 10 minutes fast. One of us said to Mum “Isn’t is time we got rid of that stupid clock it has never kept time properly” and my Mum’s response was “I can’t get rid of it, it was a wedding present”.

While carrying the box  the clock was sitting in up the stairs to the new house, it fell out of the box and smashed to a hundred pieces all over the stairs. My mother laughed and said “well that’s the end of that”, swept it up and seemed quite happy to see  the last of it. She clearly didn’t care for the clock and had kept it all that time just because someone had given it to her.

Lets face it, people don’t scope your house for the gifts they have given you when the come to visit, and if they do well that’s just a little weird. Maybe they will learn to stop buying you stuff that is not appreciated and is only likely to make it to the next garage sale.

This goes both ways so next time there is an occasion where gift giving is appropriate, donate something to a charity on their behalf or buy them something consumable like chocolate,  fresh flowers or a fruit basket.

Todays item is a bike that has rarely been ridden in the ten years since I bought it. I am donating it to “The Bike Guy” in Newcastle who collects bikes from all over and passes them back on to anyone who drops by who wants one.

Lets face it, we all have clothes in our closet we haven’t worn for some time that for one reason or another we are reluctant to part with. Well, today I have a plan to help you sort out your closet and at the same time take away the difficult part of that task, choosing. Pick a friend someone you have known for a least a couple of years  who you trust and value their opinion. Ask them to help you go through your closet and decide for you the items that they feel need to go. Since they have known you for a reasonable amount of time they will know what clothes they have never or rarely seen you in and because you value their opinion they should feel free to tell you which items are out-dated or just wrong for you. You never know you might both have a bit of fun in the process.

Today’s item – A pair of Doc Martins although good, rarely worn.

Today I would just like to revisit the idea behind 365 Less Things. There are times when we all look at our living space and think it really is time I went through everything and got rid of all the clutter around here. The problem is that when we stand back and look at the job as a whole it becomes very daunting and quite frankly we give up on the task before we even begin.

The better approach is to tackle one small task at a time, in my case one task per day. I don’t even concentrate on one area at a time I might just see something during my daily routine and think “I don’t need that” or “I might just sort through that drawer today” and that becomes the task for the day.

If you keep the task small it never appears to big to handle and doesn’t become a huge chore. When you are doing the days task you will likely see something that you can deal with the next day and so then you have a task in mind for tomorrow and one task flows into another and suddenly you realize that it is no effort at all.

SOME SMALL TASKS TO GET YOU STARTED

• Clean out one kitchen drawer
• Take the accumulation of metal coat hanger back to the drycleaners next time you go.
• Go through your sock drawer and throw out the orphan  and holey socks
• Pick one pair of shoes you never wear anymore and toss them out or put them in the donation box.
• Empty one shelf in the pantry and don’t put back anything that is past its used by date or that you are unlikely to use.
• Go through the pens you have in drawers around the house and throw out the ones that don’t work.
• Fishermen, look in your tackle box, there are bound to be a few rusty items that are now all but useless.
• Check the coffee table drawers for old magazines that you haven’t looked at in ages.
• Get the kids to go through the toy box and throw away any broken items and donate the one they have grown out of.

All these tasks really take very little time but you will feel good about it and you will be inspired to move onto a new task tomorrow. And if you are feeling more energetic one day do  more than one task and stock pile a few of the 365 things so you can have a day off every now and again, I do.

Lets face it, how much does one really need oven mitts to match the season or tea-towels or aprons or door mats for that matter. All these things are purely designed for wasting peoples money. I know you are probably thinking “Bah Humbug”  but really, isn’t Christmas supposed to be a religious holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus not a retail sell  fest to empty our pockets. I just hope someone gave me these oven mitts and that I didn’t waste money on them myself, either way they are doing into the donation box.