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.

Ok, so we are all over Christmas and are raring and ready to go with this years decluttering. So where to begin. Anywhere will do so long as you are doing it. But in case you are lacking in imagination here are a few places to start looking.

Monday – Declutter something from any drawer in your house.

Tuesday – Declutter something from the basement, garage, attic or shed.

Wednesday – Declutter something from a kitchen cabinet.

Thursday – Declutter something from your closet. And that doesn’t have to be clothes.

Friday – Declutter something in the living room.

Saturday – Declutter something in your linen or storage closet.

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

Take your own bag when you go shopping. It is amazing how much plastic that saves over a period of time.

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.

Well the new year has begun and lets start it out with our first set of missions. So what shall be our theme this week. I’d like to give it a German theme since that is very much the focus of my life at the moment. Well at least I will use German words for this week. I think decluttering is much the same for most people in modern countries these days. Too much of everything is a common theme. So lets get started. Zeug is the word for stuff in German so lets focus on that.

Monday – Das Spielzeug (The toy) ~ Now there is a fun word both in sound and in the meaning. I am sure anyone with Kinder (children) or Enkelkinder (grandchildren) will likely have some old toys the kids don’t use much anymore. Especially as Christmas has just come and gone. Time to declutter those.

Tuesday – Das Werkzeug (The tool) ~ Declutter any tools that aren’t used often enough to warrant keeping.

Wednesday – Das Fahrzeug (The vehicle) ~ Time to declutter all that stuff that has built up in your car. Whether it needs tossing or just putting back where it belongs.

Thursday – Das Flugzeug (The aeroplane) ~ If you have items related to travel that haven’t been used in a long time, even though you have indeed been travelling, then maybe they are excess to your needs and it is time to declutter them.

Friday РDie M̦bel (The Furniture) ~ Declutter any bits of furniture that you no longer need. Pieces that once held stuff you no longer own or that stuff, you used to dust, once rested on. I still have one at my house that my son wants. It is about time he came and got it.

Saturday – Der Stoff (The Fabric) ~ declutter something made from fabric that you no longer need. This one should be easy because so many things are made from fabric of one kind or another.

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

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.

And so it is Christmas and what have we done ~ a whole lot of decluttering this year, that’s what. So I think it is time for a break and this weeks missions are based on that. You can either do Part A of each mission or Part B, it is entirely up to you. I will be focusing on Part A. Have a very happy holiday everyone, no matter which, if any, you are celebrating. And we’ll chat again in the New Year.

Monday – Declutter  A. Something chocolate, or B. Something that begins with the letter C.

Tuesday – Declutter A. Something edible with mixed fruit in it, or B. something that begins with the letter F.

Wednesday - Declutter A. Some wine or other alcoholic beverage, or B. something that begins with the letter W.

Thursday – Declutter A. Some gingerbread, or B. Declutters something beginning with the letter G.

Friday - Declutter A. Declutter some Turkey or other edible cooked bird (Tofurky roast for the vegetarians among us) or B. Declutter something that begins with the letter T.

Saturday - Declutter A. Something cluttering up your fridge, such as that carton of eggnog (For extra decluttering effort my daughter-in-law suggests adding a shot of spiced rum to that), or B. Declutter something that begins with the letter E.

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

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.

Since Nicole is so good at coming up with amusing and inspiring mini mission I am dedicating this week’s missions to her in the way of an acrostic poem. I have to say that although I was a little cheeky with one mission it was very hard not to use a lot of funny adjectives to describe Nicole. However I don’t know her all that well, except the side she shows to us here through he post, but all but one of the words seem to fit. Enjoy everyone and especially you Nicole.

Monday – NICE ~ Declutter something you don’t love, need or use even though it is nice.

Tuesday – INCREDIBLE ~ Declutter something that was incredibly difficult to part with in the past but that you now have the strength to let go.

Wednesday – COLOURFUL – Declutter something colourful.

Thursday – ODD (Ha ha, just had to throw that one in for fun) ~ Declutter something left over from a set. For example – An odd sock, the last of a set of broken glasses or crockery… Or just something in your house you think is odd. Perhaps you have a hideous sweater that someone “generously” knitted for you.

Friday – LOVELY – Declutter something that a lovely person gave you but you never really wanted.

Saturday – ENTERTAINING ~ Declutter something used for entertaining. This could be anything for CDs and DVDs to a serving platter you no longer use.

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

I have written about this before but it is an important skill when it comes to living with less stuff. But don’t be deterred by the word improvise. Even though some people may have more skills at this than others, when it comes to everyday improvising I am sure everyone can do it without much thought.

The reason I even bring up the subject is that much of the tools, or gadget if you like, that we have around out homes perform the same tasks as one another. So at least half of them aren’t even necessary to the smooth running of our homes.

A simple knife for example can, with a little practice, perform the same task as so many other gadgets in the kitchen. “But…”, I hear you say, my gadget does it so much faster. But that might only be because you haven’t performed the task often enough to improve you skills. Which begs the question “If you aren’t needing the gadget often then why do you need it at all. And another thing you aren’t taking into account is that gadgets usually take much more effort to clean, cost a lot more to buy, are prone to break down and usually take up much more space.

I’ll give you another example. Do you own a mixing bowl a colander and a salad spinner. Well you don’t need the salad spinner.  Put the colander in the mixing bowl with the salad leaves in it, fill with water, shake and then drain. Then shake the colander over the sink. Voila clean drip dried salad fixings. And only half the space wasted in your cupboard.

At the moment I am living in a studio apartment in Berlin. Needless to say there is the bare minimum, in the way of gadgets, in the small kitchen, however, I have not found that to be a drawback. In fact I am being more adventurous than usual with my cooking, trying new recipes and adapting others, that I regularly use, to what is on hand. I find the challenge, if you could even call it that, entertaining and am more than satisfied with the results. The satisfaction of these small achievements is mentally rewarding.

I have also had to improvise when it comes to doing the laundry, darning a sock, acquiring some foreign language skills and getting around. And am happy with all the results.

If you insist on keeping certain gadgets at least get the most out of them. I use my coffee grinder to also grind nuts and spices, make small quantities of bread crumbs from stale bread, whip small quantities of cream etc. I use my panini press to cook pancakes, bacon, eggs, french toast (both sides at the same time), roti bread when having curries etc. Well, I did use it for all those things until it broke down, and I am not going to bother replacing it unless I can pick one up secondhand.

So my challenge to you is to find a gadget in your home that is, for the most part, just wasting space. Now devise another method of performing the same task this gadget is meant for, and hone those skills. Do a Google search for a video on how to best achieve this if necessary. I did so when I wanted to learn how best to peal, chop and mince garlic and eliminated the need for a garlic press or buying jars of minced garlic. Fresh is best and presses can be a pain to clean.

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

A guest post by Andréia

So, there is Christmas just around the corner and the dreaded shopping season is on its way again. Some will start shopping now and not stop until Christmas day. Some will not shop at all. Some will spend way more than they can and have a January and other months filled with angst at unpaid debts and regrets at impulse shopping.

One way to celebrate Christmas, for those of us who celebrate it, is to not buy gifts at all. But we want to celebrate the season and gifting one another seems a very warm way to do it. But the gifting has to have meaning and be useful. Otherwise we end up cluttering up the homes others we love and taking clutter home in return. And by clutter I don’t mean bad stuff, or ugly stuff, but stuff that will lay unused and forgotten in our house, thus being…clutter.

Since I became the “Master of my own House” (aka. I am the one who does ALL the Christmas shopping, lol) I have designed strategies and ways to get what me and my family needs and come January, be debt free.

Here are my strategies:

1. First, foremost and always: Have a budget! That means, set aside money to spend and don’t go over it, with no excuses.

2. Select who you are gifting: Most of us have a network of contacts, that being at work, at your children’s school, at church or whatever other activity you are involved throughout the year. There is not enough money to gift every one of those people. If you want to gift those who are not close to you, but deserve some recognition, make a list of relevance (this list can include your child’s teacher, a monitor, a church member who made a difference to you…) and gift them with small, consumable things. Sometimes a small consumable item is more appreciated. Set aside a small amount of money (around 15% of your budget should be enough) to buy a bunch of nice little consumable for some people you appreciate, but are not close. A nice soap, a different sweet, something small, cheap, but nice, will show appreciation and not make you sink in debt. If you can buy local handcrafted consumables, it helps your local community and the prices are often modest.

3. Make a list of people you exchange gifts with: We have family members that gift us and to which we gift in return. Listing then is a good way to keep track of how many gifts you are buying and to allocate how much money you are spending on each person, within the budget you set aside. I suggest you only gift those people who are really important to you, and with whom you have a tradition of spending Christmas with.

4. Ask what the person wants to get at Christmas: Now that you have established a budget (how much you have and how much you are going to spend on each person), ask the person what he or she is needing, WITHIN THE BUDDGET YOU SET ASIDE TO SPEND ON HIM/HER. If you are gifting a child, it is always great to ask the parent what the child needs/wants, rather than buy a larger than life toy (believe me, I know…. “sigh”…). It may sound crude to say “look, my budget for you is “x” dollars, what would you like for that?”, but it does save some grief and money, and you might be very surprised with the answer. Some of you might say that takes all the joy of Christmas giving, because there is no “surprise”. Once I wrote this on a comment in this blog and was criticized by another reader. Well, let me tell you, I rather someone I love spends their money on something I need or want, than on something they want to “surprise” me with and I might or might not like, or is useless, or whatever other reason makes it…clutter. Seems a waste of money to me. Only time I did like the surprise was when I got my Star Wars box of movies. But my husband was sure I would love it. And he was right.

5. Do a Secret Santa, or suggest it to the family: According to the amount of Family members you have, it might be impossible to gift everyone nicely. If you have a Christmas party for 30 people, plus your family, it gets heavy on the budget… A secret Santa will allow you to buy less gifts but nicer ones. Again, it is important to set a minimum amount spent and a maximum amount. The difference should be no more than 15% from the minimal and maximal amount. And encourage everyone to a little sleuth work to find out what their recipient would really like. You could even create a closed FB page, so everyone can list what they want, WITHIN THE BUDGET, SO THERE ARE NO FRUSTRATED GIFT GETTERS or givers for that matter. And tell the avaricious relatives that should they gift below the minimal they will have to reimburse the aggrieved party (well, maybe not, but it is a good suggestion nonetheless…LOL).

6. And last but by no means least ~ Buy in cash or debit card: This is the best way to not over spend. No credit cards, just hard cash. By paying with money you have, not only will you be more aware of what you are spending, but you also follow the budget because once the money is gone, it is gone. If you are already in debt, consider downsizing your Christmas gift list and budget and instead gift yourself with a debt free Christmas this year, and maybe there might even be money left over to pay of some of your debt as well.

Hope my suggestions help and enjoy your Christmas!

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.

These mini missions are brought to you by the ever amusing ~ Nicole V.

“Once upon a time, a beautiful queen had a baby girl. The baby’s skin was as white as snow, and she had beautiful black hair.”

From the title and opening lines, you must have guessed that the fairy tale of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” will be the inspiration for decluttering this week. We’ll focus on the seven dwarfs, in particular, for the mini missions. Some suggestions follow below, but you are, of course, free to creatively interpret the missions as they relate to you.

Monday – Doc: Declutter any expired medications, anything past its use-by date from your medicine cabinet or first-aid kit, medical bills or receipts that you no longer need.

Tuesday – Grumpy: Declutter anything that might be annoying to use, clean or maintain. It could also be something that puts you in a bad mood, for whatever reason or something that gets in your way each time you need to access a useful item.

Wednesday – Happy: This could be something that no longer brings you joy like it used to or something that would make someone else happy if you gave it to them or donated it.

Thursday – Sleepy: This could be anything from your main or guest bedroom or anything sleep-related or something that makes you yawn or feel drowsy (a really boring book, for instance).

Friday – Bashful: This could be a cheesy CD or DVD that you might be embarrassed to admit you have in your collection, an item of clothing that is so frayed and faded that you’d be too shy to be seen in it outside the home or even something from your past that might seem cheesy now (neon legwarmers from the 80s, anyone?) or anything associated with a fad that you are now embarrassed to ever have embraced.

Saturday – Sneezy: Declutter anything that exists solely to attract dust, ineffective or expired allergy medications, or even anything related to sunshine, exercising and plucking your eyebrows. Yes, you read that right – sunshine, exercising and eyebrow-plucking can induce sneezing in some people. If this has never happened to you before, who woulda thunk, right?

So that leaves us with Dopey. You can either declutter with Dopey for extra credit or use him as a replacement for any of the earlier mini missions that you might have had difficulty with. Dopey: This could be an item that has you dazed, confused or bewildered as to why it is even in your home or a thingamajig that has no apparent function, with nobody knowing what it is or what it is used for. It could even be a key that doesn’t fit any locks in your home or office.

And now, all that’s left is for me to say:

“And the friendly, creative and supportive decluttering community of 365ers lived happily ever after.

The End.”

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

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.

The holiday season is a great time for decluttering. It always seems to be the time of year where all the weird stuff comes to the surface or at least comes to mind. And now is a great time to send it on its way. So here are some items to be on the lookout for.

Monday – Declutter something glittery.

Tuesday – Declutter some old toys.

Wednesday – Declutter something red or green.

Thursday – Declutter an old unwanted gift.

Friday – Declutter someone from your Holiday card list that never sends a card in return.

Saturday – Declutter some holiday themed household items ~ towels, oven mitts, placemats etc.

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

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.

This weeks Mini Missions are brought to you by Nicole V. 

Do you remember playing with those shape-sorter toys as a child? Apart from being fun, they were great for developing hand-eye coordination and problem-solving skills. We’ll be shape-searching this week and you’ll need to find something to declutter in the form of (or relating to) different shapes. The item doesn’t necessarily have to take the shape perfectly – it could be squarish, instead of a perfectly proportioned square, or it could be a vase with a triangular base, and patterns and prints of any of the shapes would work as well. So let’s see how your decluttering shapes up for the entire week.

Monday – Declutter something that is a circle.

Tuesday – Declutter something that is a square.

Wednesday – Declutter something that is a cylinder.

Thursday – Declutter something that is an oval.

Friday – Declutter something that is a rectangle.

Saturday – Declutter something that is a triangle

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

How many of you come to the end of the year with a bundle of paper you need to keep to prepare your taxes or because you have to be reimbursed for medical expenses or for who knows what reason?  How many of you just find that at the end of the year you have piles of Stuff you can’t remember having a reason to keep?  How many start the year with plans to do better and then it all falls apart?  Every year I find myself going through a large personal safe of paperwork.  I’ve been good about filing it away but I still have way more than I want or need.  I also find myself starting a new year with plans to create a better way to file things.  It never seems to work like I want.

This year I am recommending creating e-files for those papers that we need to keep.  I’m also recommending e-files for keeping things for the new year too.  Here is how I plan to do it.

The Old Year. 

For every tax file I need to keep I will create a year file under taxes in Dropbox.  As a year becomes redundant I will just delete the file.  I will keep no paper copies.  I can easily print them out if needed.

I will create a file for every other item of paperwork I need to retain.  Once I no longer need something I can delete it. Probably an end of year task. 

All paperwork no longer needed will be shredded and disposed of. 

The New Year

Create a Medical File that includes sub files for each doctor, hospital, ancillary office.  Mom sees an inordinate amount of doctors along with having numerous tests and procedures.  I need to keep track of the bills, results, etc.  I can match bills with payments, maintain a file of results of tests and procedures, and at the end of the year use it all to create the medical deduction if needed for taxes.

Create a Financial file. This will include a year’s worth of bank statements.  Again this will keep this information available for tax purposes. 

Create an Automobile file.  This file will contain copies of all work done on a vehicle, the insurance policy and any other pertinent paperwork for the car. 

Create a Home file.  This will contain the insurance policy, repair paperwork, etc. 

Just looking at these two lists creates a calmness in my heart because I know I can maintain all of this with a little work between the holidays.  I hope this gives you some ideas of ways to cut down on the paperwork clutter in your home. 

Does anyone else have files you would want to create?