Deb J

You have decided to declutter and then get organized so living life is easier. You then ask, “Help, how am I supposed to go about this? “

Sorting is the answer. Sorting by how you use something, how often you use it, and whether you use it at all. So many times we start with a jumble of items in a drawer or on a shelf. How often does this jumble have no rhyme nor reason? It’s just stuff that has been thrown there as we are hurrying through life. How can we know if we have enough or too much if we have no organization of what we have?

The mother of a friend of mine was not very organized so tended to buy things when she needed them because she couldn’t find something she thought she had. This went on for years. The house became filled with clutter of all kinds. You would find things in the oddest places and living there was very trying for the family. One day my friend decided to tackle the issue. She asked me how to go about it because she had a limited time frame. She couldn’t even stand to visit her parents any more. While her parents were gone on a 2 week vacation with their two teenagers who still lived at home, my friend got permission to go in and clean things up. She promised to not get rid of anything. She would pack it all up and leave it for her Mom to go through on her return.

What did she do?

1. She went through each room and removed everything that was on a surface. It was all placed in boxes marked for various rooms. Many things didn’t belong in the room she found them in. This included clothes.
2. She went back through each room and looked in the drawers and closets she had permission to investigate. She removed everything from the drawers and closets that didn’t belong and put in the boxes. She then put the rest of the contents on the bed.
3. She went through the contents on each bed looking for & boxing up soiled, worn or torn/broken items. These were set aside. She also looked for duplicates of those things you only need one of or those things that were the wrong size and set them aside. She made sure that each room only contained those items that belonged in that room based on the function of the room and the how the item was used.
4. With the rooms now in fairly good order as far as appropriateness of contents she began to go through all of the boxes of items that had been set aside. If something was broken it was moved to a discard box. If the item was usable but there was a duplicate the most used item was put in a thrift/sell box. If there was no duplicate and the item was usable it was placed in a Decision box. The soiled clothes were washed and the torn but mendable ones set aside to be mended.

When the family returned from their trip every room was cleaned, organized and free of clutter. Each family member was to check their room for anything they considered no longer needed and this was also boxed according to probable distribution. The mother was then to spend time going through the boxes to decide what she thought needed to be done with the contents. Being a busy woman, the Mom found herself with little time to look at the boxes and make decisions. After several months, she decided that they must not need anything in those boxes because they were still unopened. She decided to give it all to the local thrift store. The mother is so happy that she can find everything and is still keeping things clutter free. She has also stopped buying duplicates. The entire family is happier in their home and has begun to entertain and enjoy it.

This is the story of how one woman helped her family make order out of chaos and get rid of the many things that had accumulated over the years. While she had a hard deadline that cause her work to go fast, this same set of steps can be done in a slower, more deliberate manner. Every day you can look for one clutter item and make a decision about it. Once you have made a decision about the surface clutter you can start on those things hidden in drawers and closets. Sorting through your possessions causes you to make decisions and helps you become more organized with what you have because you have put like items together in the area where they are used the most.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an Obligation item ~ Something you only keep because you feel you should. Often something someone else gave you.

Eco Tip for the Day

Put a container outside on a rainy day to collect water for your indoor plants.

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

Cindy

Even for me, some jobs are just too daunting. There is something about the art closet, for example, that terrifies and mocks me. My own desk is another source of terror. (How ironic is that?) My children’s closets are rooms of mystery and wonder. The garage is, well, really big and definitely not all mine.

How do I manage? Just like the Beatles sang in 1967, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”

The art closet is used primarily by Audra and me. Clara keeps her art supplies in her room (smart girl). Because the job is daunting to both of us, I set the timer for the 15 minutes, and we slammed the door behind us the moment that timer rings. Nonetheless, a few 15 minute sessions later, and a couple of “I’ll just decide about one item” later, and the closet, while not complete, is in much better shape.

When we remodeled, I packed everything from my desk into a laundry basket. Now that I have a desk, I have unpacked the crucial items, but the basket still seems full. What else could possibly be in there? Every time I look, I see a mixture of unneeded items and good stuff, but some how I just can’t bring myself to deal with it. Again, Audra to the rescue. She’s perfectly willing to help me out, and she loves to arrange and organize the drawers. All I have to do is ask.

The girls’ closets not only hold their clothes but also all manner of both treasurers and junk. How am I to know which is which? Fortunately for me, both of the girls seem to think that cleaning out their closets with my help is fun and not a chore at all. They look forward to moving their too-small clothes along to some other girl, knowing that they can’t ever get anything new (actually, typically used) until the closet is purged. While we’re in there, I generally pull out a few old art projects or other memorabilia for them to “nay or yea” as well.

As for the garage, I’m eager to get it decluttered. We have what is quite possibly the ugliest and most decrepit shed imaginable, and I have finally persuaded Dan that we need to shift all shed stuff into the garage and pull the shed down. He thinks it’s not all going to fit, but I know that it can. (The wheelbarrow and lawnmower would present a fit challenge if we had more than one car, but since we don’t, it should all be fine.) I promised that we could build another shed if we find we must have one, but I’m betting that after the adjustment period, we won’t miss it at all, and I can use the slab that it’s sitting on for something much more interesting. I have a raised fish pond in mind.

In every case, I am tackling my hard challenges with the help of someone else. While I’m using family members, I’ve also paid for help from Amy and Susan at The Clutter Consultants and gotten assistance my friend Holly, whom I, in turn, helped out. Not everyone is the right candidate to help, but many people are happy to assist. After all, cleaning and rooting through someone else’s stuff isn’t ever as daunting as cleaning your own. If you’ll repay the favor, that’s even better!

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an Aspirational item. Something you aspire to getting around to using or trying one day.

Eco Tip For The Day

Buying a new pair of shoes and decluttering two pair in their place will reduce your clutter. However being satisfied with the shoes you own and wearing them until they are worn out is better for the environment.

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

Some of the first items I decluttered

In order to write this post today I took a look back to Day 64 of my declutter mission. This was the day that I first began to blog about my resolution to declutter 365 things. Since then I have often written that the simplest way to begin decluttering is to start with the easy things. Looking back on the photos and list of items I had decluttered prior to blogging proves that this is exactly what I did.

Many of these items had never been used, hadn’t been used for a long time, I didn’t like for one reason or another or I had too many of. The items came from places all over the house, from drawers, closets, cupboards, cabinets, open shelves and even the garage. I dare say to begin with I would not have been able to tell by looking around that I had even decluttered much, but that did not deter me. I knew the stuff was gone and that was all that mattered.

I then looked a little further along in my photo archives and found that I continued on in this way for quite a while until I added a degree of difficulty by beginning to sell on ebay. Then it seems I began my first use-it-up challenges with toiletries, pantry and craft items. Next larger items, from outside, that required dismantling began to appear in the photo archives. Then obligation items began to show up, things given to us by friends and family that we no longer wanted. And by now my husband was well and truly involved in the decluttering effort.

By this point furniture began to be decluttered, furniture that was finally emptied and no longer required. This was all before day 200. It was easy to see from the following photos that I was really becoming ruthless. Sentimental items were heading out the door, as were useful items from my kitchen that I had decided I had too many of. Items that at the start I wouldn’t have thought I would declutter were also now fair game.

I won’t bore you with over two more years of my decluttered inventory. However I do hope that you can see the point of this post by now. Choosing the easy things first really is the less painful way to enter into this hopefully life changing mission. No matter how many things you have or how attached you are to some of them, if you begin with the easy stuff you will make a difference. You may not notice the difference at first but it will become obvious soon enough. Just be grateful that you are making progress and that it isn’t so hard.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter A Guilt item. Something you feel guilty about acquiring in the first place.

Eco Tip for the Day

Think twice about buying anything that you don’t need. Whether your use for it will last, whether it is just a novelty or whether it even adds anything to your life.

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

As anyone who has been reading my blog for a while would know, my decluttering style is usually slow, steady and haphazard. That is, I declutter random items from all over the house, rarely concentrating on one particular area. This method, however,  doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone of course. If that is the case for you then it is best to concentrate on one area at a time or the task would probably drive you crazy.

With that being said here is a strategy to use when decluttering space by space.

If the idea of letting go of things disturbs you but the annoyance of keeping them is equally disturbing, perhaps it is time to adopt a new focus. Instead of looking at each item, look at the space itself and decide what it will take to master it. What or how much do you need to let go of in order to feel comfortable and happy with and in that space. Sit in the room and imagine the serenity of having this area of your home uncluttered, easy to take care of and only containing items you use and/or enjoy.

With the joyous thought of how good it would feel to achieve such a goal, start choosing the items you care the lease about or have the least use for, and start removing them. Sort them into your sell or giveaway boxes and trash or recycle the rubbish items. All the while keeping your focus on mastering your space rather than succumbing to the temptation of keeping items for insubstantial sentimental reasons. Remembering all the while that YOU ARE NOT YOUR STUFF.

If you only keep the most loved items or/and the most useful items the result will be the best of both worlds. That is, a serene room with just enough items to keep it practical, functional and/or beautiful.

One 365ers example of mastering her space.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one bookshelf. Not the whole bookcase, just one shelf.

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t pander to older children by driving them here there and everywhere. The exercise will do them good to walk, ride or take a bus when and where appropriate. I am sure the fuel savings will be quickly noticed and they will grow more independent for it.

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

Cindy

“If you’re going to do something, do it right.” vs. “Something is better than nothing.” Isn’t it amazing how, for every piece of folk wisdom, there is an opposite piece of wisdom? I think for decluttering, “something is better than nothing” should rule the day.

This weekend, I wanted to take the box of Easter decorations up to the attic and bring down the boxes of camping equipment. I didn’t do those things – any of them. Even though all the Easter stuff wasn’t together (the girls are still eating treats out of their baskets), I could have brought the camping equipment down. I don’t have to take one thing up before I bring another thing down. Something would have been better than nothing.

True, I’m annoyed that a certain small person made a mess on the dining room table and is now skillfully ignoring it, but there was still something I could do without feeling like I capitulated and cleaned her mess for her. The newspapers could be gathered and put into the recycling, and those towels on the table were put there by some large person doing the laundry (me) and not by some short person making a mess (her). Something would be better than the nothing that got done.

Can’t declutter your whole wardrobe today? Just declutter the shirts. Or just the short sleeve shirts. Or just the belts. Something is better than nothing.

Don’t have time to examine and deeply think about every book you might be ready to say good bye to? Make a quick trip through the shelves and pull out the books you know you’re done with. Something is better than nothing.

Know that your yard needs attention and is starting to be a cluttered landscape? Bring in one or two toys the kids have scattered or trim up one bush if that’s all you have time for. Something is better than nothing. (Then puts your tools away – you don’t need to replace one kind of clutter with another.)

Something. It is better than nothing. And something then something else then something else will eventually lead you to a decluttered house.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter and tidy your medicine cabinet or similar storage.

Eco Tip For The Day

Save electricity close off rooms that don’t require heating or cooling. If you have a ducted system only heat or cool the rooms that need it.

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

 

Cindy

Can organizing help you declutter? The tidier your stuff is, the more you can pack into a small space, that’s for sure. But we all know that’s not the same as decluttering! Nonetheless, organizing can help you declutter in a number of useful ways:

When you gather together like-with-like to organize it, it’s easy to see and find your duplicate (triplicate!) items. You can either give one of them away or have a use it up challenge, whichever is appropriate.

• When you decide that all your books must fit on the bookshelf in the traditional up and down style, then you must declutter all the books that you cannot fit onto the shelves. If you decide to display some sentimental trinkets (that you love, find beautiful, hold dear, etc.) on your bookshelves as well, then you’ll have to reduce your books further.
• The same can be said for your linen closet, food pantry, or wardrobe  If you decide that everything must fit in that space, you’ll declutter until it does fit.
• While organizing your items, it’s a good time to consider their placement. Do rarely needed coats really need to be in the front door closet? Maybe that’s a better space for pool bags, towels, and extra sunblock (something I think you almost cannot have too much of because you never want to run out  – at least not if you’re as fair as my family). If you never wear belts, why do you have a special holder for them on the door of your closet? Are your most frequently used kitchen spoons in a convenient location, or is the plastic wrap that you hardly ever use holding court in the easiest to reach drawer?

To me, organizing doesn’t mean buying a whole bunch of boxes and clever “solutions” so that I can jam more stuff into each square inch of space. It means culling and cultivating my collection (of clothes, jewelry, books, kitchen utensils  gardening tools) so that everything is useful, easy-to-location, in good working order, and appropriate for my lifestyle. Is there anything you could organize today?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something made from paper.

Eco Tip for the Day

Instead of giving lots of sugar laden, foil wrapped Easter treats do what I did. Only buy ten little eggs attach $1 or $2 coins to them and arrange a Riddle Easter Hunt. Hide each egg with its coin separately with a riddle attached leading to the next egg. You can also skip the chocolate eggs altogether and just hide the money with the riddle. I used to recycle those plastic eggs year after year and hide the money and riddle inside them. It is fun to watch the kids trying to figure out the riddles, making them harder and harder each year.

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

Deb J

One of the rules of engagement we have learned from Colleen is to constantly be weeding out the things we no longer need. That’s what we are doing when we “declutter one thing a day.” With her Monday Mini-Missions she has been good to give us items to consider decluttering so that we don’t even have to really think about it if we follow them. Our work is already planned for us.

I began to think about this when a friend from church asked me to help her with decluttering. Her husband was just placed in an Alzheimer’s group home and she is well aware that many of the items in her home will no longer be used. The house is cluttered due to taking care of her husband and trying to deal with his disease. She may move to a smaller house and closer to her husband’s group home. She wants to begin the weeding process. She especially wants to be rid of the clutter that accumulated while having the day to day care of her husband. I tried to come up with a list of mini-missions that would help her without overwhelming her.

After explaining to her the idea of decluttering one item a day and looking for things that are broken, soiled, the wrong size, no longer used, or seldom used, this is what I came up with. Oh, I also explained the idea of having boxes where she could accumulate things to toss, sell, repair, or give away. I explained these could be dealt with along the way as time permitted.

1. Start with storage areas first. It took me a great amount of thought to decide to have her tackle this first. But I realized that all the clutter on all of the surfaces in the various rooms had to go somewhere and if it needed to be kept it couldn’t go into a storage area if it was already full. I know that Mom & I used to be guilty of the habit of just stuffing something in a storage area when people were coming to visit or the mess got too overwhelming. How many times have you cleaned up the house by putting it all in one room and closing the door? Her first week’s worth of mini-missions was to go through her garage storage cupboards one cupboard a day. The second week’s missions were to go through her pantry, the guest closet, the huge linen closet, the guest room closet, and the large set of storage cupboards in her laundry room. Like most of us, when we open a drawer or cupboard we tend to declutter whatever is there not just one item. I told her that was fine but it really was okay to do one item a day. She was to repeat these mini-missions until she felt the storage areas were ready and she could move on. This would give her some working area where she could store her decluttering boxes until it was time to move them out.
2. Next she was to go through each room, one room a day, and start putting the clutter in the room where it belonged. She didn’t have to put it away yet. She just needed to have it in the right room. Again I thought about this long and hard. I realized that getting the clutter to the room where it belonged helped me to know if I had too much of that item and helped me to know how to put things away in that room when the time came. I again told her to do this until all the clutter was properly distributed.
3. By this time the clutter would have been transferred to the proper room. The storage areas should be decluttered of everything that needed to go and she should be ready to start doing the nitty gritty item at a time decision making. Her first room to declutter completely was the living room. For her it would be the easiest, would give her a good handle on how to go about the process of really decluttering and would give her a public room in good shape. I told her that for each room she tackled there was a formula to follow. Again I told her to do this as many weeks as it took to get things decluttered.

1. Day 1 – declutter the surfaces of furniture (magazines, books, nicknacks, etc.)
2. Day 2 – declutter the floor (rugs, storage items, piles)
3. Day 3 – declutter the storage areas (drawers, shelves, closets, etc.)
4. Day 4 – declutter the walls
5. Day 5 – declutter the furniture (do you really need it all?)
6. Day 6 – declutter anything else that might be specific to that room

4. By this time the house should be in pretty good shape for the time being. She should be able to go through each day and find one thing more to get rid of but the house would be in visiting condition and she would not feel the weight of the mess on her shoulders.

I am hoping that this will give my friend an easy way to declutter without being overwhelming and yet with results she can see. She is being slow and careful about making any decisions about moving so she doesn’t have to go too fast until she decided whether she will move or not.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that has been sitting in a storage area for quite sometime but still isn’t being used.

Eco Tip for the Day

Choose water based latex paints over solvent based paints when painting your home. Never use lead-based paints. (Tip curtesy of Greenpeace USA)

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Let’s see a show of hands: Who has a box (or more) of clothes saved for the day when you lose 10, 20, or 50 pounds? Or, perhaps worse, who is clogging their closet with these reminders of days gone by?

Let’s get serious here, people.

• Do you have a plan that you are implementing to lose weight?
• When was the last time you wore this size (these sizes)?
• Do you know what’s in this box (these boxes)? Can you actually name even 3 or 4 of the items?

Here’s my challenge for you.

First of all, what are you doing to lose weight? If the answer is nothing, or something vague like “trying to cut back on alcohol,” think realistically about whether that’s going to be the lifestyle change that you need to reduce.

Next, if the clothes are hanging in your closet, the same closet that you use for your clothes that actually fit you, it’s time to move them out. Pull them all out and box them up, but before you do, think seriously: Do I really love this outfit? Did it ever fit me well? Did I wear it frequently? Am I realistically going to want to wear it again in the future? If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, don’t box it away, take it directly to the thrift store.

If the clothes are in the attic, hiding under the bed, or tucked away elsewhere, now’s the time to pay them a visit. What sizes are there? When did you last wear that size? Do you like what you’re looking at? Would you wear it again? Do you even recognize this item? Sort through and only keep the clothes that you genuinely would like to wear again. The rest need to go to the thrift store, pronto.

Before you put your now sorted – but still unwearable – clothes back into storage, ask yourself again: What am I doing to lose weight so that I can wear these clothes again in the future? If you’re still determined to hang onto them, mark your boxes with today’s date and these words “This box was last opened on XX/XX/XXXX.” Now you can put your “to be stored until later” clothes back into their long-term storage location. When you revisit them next, you’ll now how long they’ve been put away and think again about whether they deserve the space you’re devoting to them.

Today’s Mini Mission

Scan your home for an item that has become so much a part of the scenery that you haven’t even realised it isn’t useful to you anymore.

Eco Tip for the Day

Do not throw out your toxic household wastes, such as paint, paint thinner and car fluids, in the garbage or down the drain. Check with your local facilities for proper disposal and avoid these products in the future. (Tip curtesy of Greenpeace USA)

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

 

Cindy

“Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: ‘I’m saving food!’ Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: ‘I’m saving my life!'”

– George Carlin, comedian

I just finished reading the book The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn. Briefly, Kathleen is a former restaurant and food critic who earns a degree at Le Cordon Bleu. One evening, back in the United States, she is grocery shopping and starts following a woman who is filling her cart only with highly processed, packaged foods including roast beef dinners, macaroni and cheese, and just-add-water scalloped potatoes. She finally strikes up a conversation with the women and hears the confession that the woman does not know how to cook, at all. From this, Kathleen gets the idea to open the Kitchen Counter Cooking School: She finds nine women who all confess to not knowing how to cook, and she trains them over the course of several months. Along the way, Kathleen talks about food politics, food waste, processed foods, sustainability, as well as how to wield a knife and other kitchen basics.

The sections on food waste caught my eye as it relates to clutter. Please bear with me as I quote some big sections of the book.

“Even as we bemoan food prices, American consumers are generally unaware that they spend less of their wages on food than any other country in the world; just under 10 percent of their paychecks. Compare that to 1900, when 40 percent of wages went toward food. Around 1960, the first time the amount spent on food was no longer the biggest expenditure, the figure was about 25 percent. The declining cost comes with the rise of the industrialization of farming practices and the shift of everything we eat – from pigs and cows to orange juice – into mass produced merchandise.”

“Perhaps it’s the lack of investment that leads to a cavalier attitude toward food. We may give thanks for the bounty once a year [Thanksgiving in the US], but then as a country we collectively waste about 40 percent of the food produced for consumption the rest of the time. Anthropologist Timothy Jones spent more than a decade studying food waste. His research finds that some crops sit abandoned or unharvested in the fields where they’re grown. Supermarkets or suppliers discard another few percent dismissed as too imperfect for retail. The rest – about 25 to 30 percent – we throw away at home. That food goes into landfills to rot, where it emits clouds of methane, a greenhouse gas more toxic and damaging than carbon monoxide.

” ‘By treating edibles as a disposable commodity, we teach our children not to value food,’ says Jonathan Bloom… He puts the figure on what we waste at more than $100 billion annually. This jived with what I found in the interviews with the volunteers and the kitchen visits [to her student’s homes before the lessons began] and what I observed in my own house and in the homes of friends. A few of the volunteers agreed to keep a journal of what they bought, ate, and threw out for two week. The result? They reported less waste due to the guilt they felt knowing they had to write it down, but even then, an average of 18 percent of their grocery bills went into the trash.

“But why do we waste so much? Both Jones and Bloom offer some interesting insights.

“First people often shop for the life they aspire to, not their real one. [Aspirational clutter!] Everyone knows that they’re supposed to eat fruit and vegetables, so we stock up on perishables. Since most people don’t plan meals for the week, those beets or greens that looked so great at the farmers’ market sit untouched as we end up eating convenience foods. [Impulse purchases!] With proper planning, buying in bulk or loading up on two-for-one deals can be a genuine money saver; without a plan, it’s just a recipe for double or triple the amount of food tossed away.

“Dr. Trubek from the University of Vermont has studied the activities of home cooks for years… ‘Planning menus is the greatest skill that we’ve collectively lost,’ she said. ‘That, and what to do with leftovers.’

Various chefs and food experts offer their ideas on how to eliminate food waste:

• Participate in an “eating down the fridge” challenge where you avoid buying groceries for a week and intentionally eat down your pantry and refrigerator.  [Use it up challenge!]
• Put a photo you like at the back of your refrigerator. Your fridge shouldn’t be so full that you can’t see it.
• Use up old products first, which is known as rotation in the restaurant world.
• Buy a realistic amount of produce. In our family, when I buy bananas, I just get four, not an entire bunch. Pears go bad quickly, and I usually buy only two of those – a half for each person.
• Especially in the United States and Europe, you can let the grocery store be your pantry: There will be more bananas  pears, cereal, flank steak next time you shop. Just because you can buy something doesn’t mean that you should.
• Don’t be afraid to substitute. If  you need a zucchini for a recipe but only have a green pepper, use that instead. No Panko? Use regular bread crumbs as a substitute. [Use it up challenge!]
• Don’t give up too easily on your food. Peel away the dent or the brown spot rather than throwing the whole thing away.
• Bought too much? Try IQF, individually quick frozen. Spread the extra berries or veggies on a baking sheet and freeze them. When frozen, sweep them into a plastic bag. (And don’t forget to use them!)
• Clean our your condiment shelf by taking some similar flavors and combine them into a marinade. There are sites on the web that will help you to know what flavors work well with what if you’re struggling with this idea. Here’s one possible helper.
• Soup is the great user of all-things-leftover.
• Don’t try to reinvent the culinary wheel for every meal. Develop a stable of recipes that you enjoy and know how to make, and lean on those for the majority of your meals.
• Take leftovers to work and pack them in your kid’s lunches.

On a different note, thank you to everyone who searched the Internet for the blog post I was looking for. It was found on Small Notebook, and here it is.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from your pantry that isn’t healthy for you even though most people stock it. The best way to avoid unhealthy food is to not keep it in your home. ~ Examples:- White sugar, pasta, sweet sauces, white rice, white flours, candy…

Eco Tip for the Day

 No need for a tip today as there are plenty in Cindy’s post above.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Several people have recently asked me how to begin decluttering, and someone confessed last week that she thought all of us were running to the thrift store every single day as we decluttered, so I decided that it was time for another review.

Where Colleen and I started from

For those of you who are newer readers, you may not know that Colleen and I started our decluttering journeys from very different places. (And we didn’t know each other then, either.) Colleen’s house was well organized and very tidy, but she realized that she simply had way too much stuff. Her children were in their late teens when she began.

I moved into our current house with a two year old, and I was pregnant with my second child. The house never got fully organized. In addition, we did a lot of work on the house, so some area was always disrupted. When we finished all the work, the house looked fantastic, and I didn’t want the junk that was everywhere to make my beautiful house look ugly and cluttered. The inside of most cabinets were organized, but every surface was covered and there were laundry baskets of miscellaneous all over the house. By this time, I had one child in elementary school and one child in middle school.

What are your decluttering goals?

Different people declutter with a different goal in mind. Colleen thought she had too much stuff. I wanted my house to look nice, to be able to use my furniture and surfaces as intended, and I wanted to not be embarrassed to have guests.

Categories of clutter

Different people will have different sorts of clutter. I’m sure we all have a few toiletries we need to use up, some medicines that have expired, too many gadgets in the kitchen, some clothes we never wear. I think our trouble areas, however, are more specific to our interests, our psychology, and our personalities. Here are the main categories of clutter for all the members of my family:

Me – All sorts of household miscellanies, things I kept putting off making decisions about, craft supplies, office supplies, toys and games, books.

My husband – Books and papers leftover from college, books in his field (computers) that are now hopelessly outdated, hundreds of career-related magazines, electronic this-and-that, accumulated garage items.

The girls – Clothes and toys that they outgrew, art supplies, all sorts of tiny things that girls like to collect, unwanted birthday and Christmas gifts, art.

Some things you might have – Clothes, impulse purchases, decorative collectibles, books, magazines, newspapers, items you inherited, gadgets, excess food in your pantry or freezer, hobby items, crafts supplies, furniture, gardening tools and planters, stationery, incomplete projects, things that might be useful “someday”, love letters and photos that hurt you, souvenirs, things you have identified to declutter but haven’t actually gotten rid of.

How to begin

Beginning is usually easy once you decide to do it. You probably have an area that’s been bothering you. Take one thing from that area, put it in your discard box. Do not get it back out. Hurrah! You’re on your way.

Over time, you’ll find things that you would like to sell or need to give back to a friend, items that are harder for you to discard or need more thought. In the beginning, skip those and go for the low hanging fruit. You’ll make more progress and feel better about your accomplishments that way.

You’re on your way!

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you really need an alarm clock when your cell phone can carry out this task. Consider decluttering it.

Eco Tip for the Day

When packing items you have sold on eBay use recycled packaging materials when possible. I get used product boxes from my local hardware store.

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