Remember back in October one of our fellow 365ers needed our advice on getting go of her clutter with eyes. Read about it here. Well this week she sent us and update that she wanted me to share with you all.

Here is what Chrissie had to say…

This is some update on my efforts concerning things with eyes. Feel free to publish if you like to. I am progressing! Not as fast as I wish to but anyway progress is visible – Especially today!

From all the comments of your readers I created little tutorial

Helpful actions

• Involve trusted friend or family member (my hubby and my Mom – I don’t like to share this topic with more people…)
• Start with least sentimental value (I started with a sorting and piled those which I definitely cannot let go and worked only on the remaining stuff)
• Give the items to a friend for disposal (good a idea, but as above, I will no involve more people an that embarassing topic)
• Don’t bring item into you house that have eyes (this is what I always sermonize on my on blog – best way to be free of clutter is avoiding new clutter)
• Paint over the faces to get rid of the eyes (no no no I could not make them blind! Ouch!)
• Keep only 1 box and the rest let go (this is exactly what I managed – I had 4 boxes with cuddly toys, no it is only 1!)
• Put them into a box and give them to charity (there are 2 critical boxes waiting for my approaches to charity, but this is not easy in Germany…)
• Check if you can give them to police, firefighter or pedriatic units who may solace children with them (this is as well option for the 2 waiting boxes)
• Give them to animal shelter (will keep that option in case charity will not work)
• Put them face down into kitchen bin and cover with dirt, e.g. tea bags (this I did with items I occasionally decluttered during last time, this very good idea prevents me from digging them out of the bin once again)
• Take photos (digitalization is good idea, but in fact I was surprised that there were almost no feelings towards the items that I did not put on the “must-stay-pile”. I took no photos, appart from what is attached to this little article)
• Do it all at once (different option vs. step-by-step – In fact I faced all the 4 high critical boxes on one day, but finally there left only some 20 items the house that were in too bad condition for anything)
• Put them quickly in the car and bring them away (YES! In fact I brought them to the Textil Container immediately although this is forbidden on Sundays…)

Helpful thoughts

• Beeing sad is ok, it shows that you have feeling which is not bad at all J
• Give them 2^nd chance to be loved
• They have fullfilled their purpose
• They don’t love you back
• They are from material like plastic, fake fur, etc only – it’s not living!

Yes indeed, I started with 4 critical boxes.

I devided all the content into 2 piles.

The must-stay-pile I reduced to the size of 1 box.

The let-go-pile I devided into bad condition and still usable

The bad condition items I put into plastic bags and brought them out of the house immediately

2 more boxes are now waiting for further purpose.

Inbetween I invited as well my Mom to review what I sorted out. She strongly adivsed me to put one more item into the must-stay-box (…) and took 2 other cuddly toys for decoration purpose back to her home.

That’s it so far!

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Find 10 minute to go through one hanging file in your filing cabinet. Just One! Shred and recycle the papers that need not be retained. The idea of doing the whole cabinet is likely to be paralysing in nature but one small section isn’t so daunting. Am I right? Perhaps next week you could do another small section ~ “rinse and repeat” ~ and before you know it the whole thing will be clutter free. I am using this method on my vast collection of photos.

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.

“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

On Saturday while writing my gratitude list it occurred to me that one could apply the feeling of gratitude to their decision making process while decluttering. It really is a very simple concept. If the item you are considering doesn’t make you feel grateful that you own it then it probably isn’t something that you need to keep.

There are many reasons to be grateful for things that you own. You might be grateful that an item makes a task easier. You may receive pleasure from the beauty of another item which is also something to be grateful for. Other items may bring you warmth, comfort, joy, security, happy memories or their purpose may be purely utilitarian but help keep your home in order. All these are good reason to be grateful and retain certain items.

Why not give this test a try. Just remember the gratitude must relate to the present. If you find yourself keeping things because you are grateful that they were useful in the past ~ the past being months or years ago ~ then it is time to let them go and just be grateful that you got your money’s worth out of them. Similarly if you find yourself thinking you will be grateful you kept this or that item only when you find a use for it in the future ~ a future that may or may not occur ~ then I think you need to reconsider this decision.

Just imagine your household only containing items that you are grateful that you own. How wonderful would that be? Everywhere you turn and every time you use something you get a warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction and thankfulness.

* * * * * * *

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Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter craft fabrics that you haven’t had inspiration to use in a long time.

Today’s Declutter Item

Now here is an item that I was grateful to have while it was useful to me. I was also grateful that it cost me next to nothing and I more than got my money’s worth out of it. Now that I have decluttered so much I no longer have a use for it. I have given in to a friend who hopefully will appreciate it as much as I did.

Storage Bins

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t throw those old sheets, towels, blankets and pillow in the trash donate them to an animal shelter, humane society, wildlife rescue service, kennel or veterinary surgery.

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

I am not one for promoting gadgets or any kind but I have discovered in the last year or so that a smart phone can come in quite handy when it comes to finding new homes for clutter. Here are three ways I have found smart phones assist me with my decluttering efforts.

Sending photos via messages ~ Every now and again I make a decision to declutter something that I think one or another of my friends might find useful. So I snap a photos of the item and send it via my smart phone to theirs with a message asking if they would like the item. I am always careful to let them know that they shouldn’t feel obliged. A quick yes or no is all the is required in response and then we usually set up a day to have coffee together and hand over the item/s. So not only am I happy to get rid of something and my friend happy to receive it but we get to enjoy a coffee and a chat together as well.

Social Media ~ Aside from personal friends there is also a local social group that I am a member of who communicates via Facebook. It is perfectly acceptable to post For Sale ads on this Facebook Group site and I have found this to be a very effective way to sell certain items. Being as many of the group members are stay at home mums I find that toys and craft items are particularly popular sale items. It is so easy to take a photo, hit the share tab, choose Facebook, add a short message and send using just my smart phone anywhere, anytime. This is much simpler that using my camera, finding the cable to uploading the photo to my computer and then going through all the rigmarole of finding and attaching the photo and typing the message. With my smartphone I can even speak the message and allow the text converter to type the text for me. Too easy.

Online Storage and Sharing services ~ I have set up a free online storage and sharing service, to sync my smart phone to my computer. It automatically transfers the photos I take using my smart phone to my computer. This eliminated the need for me to upload photos manually for my standard camera. This one small simplification makes a big difference as I use photos for advertising purposes on ebay, to send photos of items to friends who aren’t set up to receive photos with their phones and for adding photos to my Freecycle.org album when advertising to give away items.

Enlighten me more if you have other clever uses for your smart phone when it comes to decluttering.

Today’s Mini Mission

Remove those silly stick figure decals from the back window of your car or that thing hanging from your rear vision mirror. They serve no purpose except to have wasted your money in the first place and obstruct your vision potentially causing a safety hazard.

Today’s Declutter Item

This television cable is both broken and not needed so out it goes.

Television Cable

Eco Tip for the Day

Install water flow regulators to all of your faucets. This will not only reduce the amount of water you use but may also help avoid those nuisance moments when you turn the water on to hard and it splashes all over the place.

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

There is a tip I have heard many times from many sources that I don’t think I have ever mentioned on my blog before now. That tip is ~ Focus on the space not the clutter. That is to visualise how you want the space that you are about to declutter to look instead of focusing on the task itself. Having a clear picture in your mind of what you want the space to look and feel like should give you the incentive to strive towards that vision.

Stay focused on the vision, which is the positive outcome, rather than focus on the negative, which is the work involved in achieving that vision.

When you are about to embark on a vacation to places exotic such as a week of lazing by the beach drinking mojitos in Hawaii your focus is clearly on the vacation itself not the less enjoyable 5, 6 or 12 hour flight to your destination. This positive vision can also help motivate you to work hard for months to earn the money required to pay for it even though the payoff is short lived in comparison. The same can be done for decluttering your home although in this case the payoff can, with a little maintenance, last permanently while the task itself only lasts for a relatively short length of time.

It may be easier to work on one space or room at a time using this method or if your visualisation skills are good enough you can let your imagination go wild on visualising the entire house looking and feeling unclutttered, spacious, relaxing, tranquil and easy to maintain.

Not only can this method get you motivated to begin your decluttering but it can also help sustain your enthusiasm during the process. With every item that I move to the garage for removal I feel the joy of knowing that it is one more thing that gets me a step closer to my clutter-free goal. In fact the vision in my mind of moving to a small abode is all it takes to motivate me to go searching for the next thing to declutter.

Now if thinking this way doesn’t get you motivated then I don’t know what will.

Today’s Mini Mission

Get rid of one uncomfortable pair of shoes that sure are cute but could be used by the enemy as an effective torture treatment.

Today’s Declutter Item

This skateboard deck was sold on ebay. It was a gift to my son but was not the size he uses. Skateboarders are particular about the width of the decks they use.

Skateboard Deck

Eco Tip for the Day

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

For a full list of my eco tips click here

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

Last week I wrote a post called Get Set For Success about setting up your opportunities to declutter before actually starting to choose the items. That is, finding a good thrift shop, exploring ebay etc ahead of time so you are set for success. Sometimes however the opportunities for decluttering present themselves without you even having to try.

A couple of months ago we eliminated our home phone line to go completely mobile. The phones we had been using were originally purchased in the US and we still had the US power cables. Although we had purchased new cables when we arrived back in Australia they were not quite right making it difficult to position the smaller docking stations. These phone had been sitting in the transition point in my garage awaiting a solution as to how best to get rid of them.

Then the week before last I received in my mailbox an invitation to a going away party, to be held at the end of November. The party was for one of our neighbouring families who are moving to the US (lucky ducks).

The next link in this chain of events was a social engagement I was attending with a group of people also belonging to my neighbourhood, to which, at the last moment, I didn’t have transport. I posted a request on our community Facebook page for someone to possibly give me a ride. Coincidently enough the lady, let’s call her Kylie, who is moving to the US was the first to offer me a ride and I gladly accepted. The stage was set for a potentially difficult declutter to suddenly become very simple.

On the ride to our destination we had a lovely chat about what preparations she needed for her move. She asked lots of question and I shared with her my knowledge from my time in the US. It then occurred to me to offer her the set of phones and she happily accepted. Mission accomplished, or at least it was last Friday when I dropped them of at her house.

The icing on the cake, when it comes to this story, is that the new phone/internet plan that we signed up for in order to eliminate these phones ended up costing us $60 less than what we were paying a month previously including much more call time.

Today’s Mini Mission

Gather up a group of similar items, decide which ones you really do need/want and declutter the excess. Kitchen items are usually a good target for this type of decluttering.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here are the phones from the story above. I didn’t realise until a went to add this photo that it doesn’t include the power cords and extra docking station. So there was even more clutter than this that left on the day these were passed along to their new home.

My old home phone system

Eco Tip for the Day

When soaking dishes in the kitchen sink ,don’t waste fresh water to fill them. Just leave them in the bottom of the sink and allow them to fill up with water from rinsing the dishcloth and other wet tasks.

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

I have had a couple of conversations lately with people who are struggling to gain momentum with their decluttering. They are making fitful starts here and there but get frustrated. I have discovered through these conversations that the main underlining theme behind their difficulty is that, once chosen, they don’t have a plan in place as to how to get rid of the clutter. As a result all they end up doing is moving it around the house.

Most of my regular readers have this situation well and truly in hand. So much so, that they can also easily investigate and discover an outlet even for those odd items that don’t fit with their usual system. This comes with practice and experience of course. For those starting out though it is better to keep it simple and grow from there.

With a little forethought, a few phone calls and maybe a little leg work anyone can set themselves up to be successful declutterers from the start. The fact is, that knowing how to get rid of the stuff is equally as important as being willing to let it go in the first place.

So here are my suggestions for what to do to get yourself set up for declutter success…

• Keep it simple. Choose a few methods for getting rid of your stuff that will make it easy to achieve success. You can always get more imaginative with your disposal methods later when you have worked out how to really flex your decluttering muscle.
• Let your fingers do the walking. Use google or your local phone directory (online or off) to find where the thrift stores are in your area. Phone them and enquire what items they are willing to receive. Many such organisations have web sites these days that give all the information you will need. Choose the one that receives the widest range of items because that will make it easier for you to get rid of lots of things at once and will save you a lot of running around. Better still, choose one that will come to you if that is an option.
• Make freecycle.org your new best friend. Listing stuff to give away on freecycle is a great way to offload things that are still good but not accepted by your local thrift stores.
• See if curb-side decluttering will work for you. Just put something out with a FREE sign on it and see if it is taken. Please don’t leave things out overnight though.
• If you are feeling adventurous and think you may want to sell some things through online selling sites like ebay, Trademe or Craigslist etc, investigate how that works and do a trial run with an item you have chosen to send on its way. Talk to a friend or family member who has used these sites for advice on how to go about selling and what strategies have worked best for them. My suggestion is to keep it simple to begin with; don’t worry what day or time your auctions begin, just get them up there. Limiting yourself with best times can have the effect of slowing you down. I find it makes no difference as to how my auctions perform so long as the auction ends at a reasonable hour of the day.
• Consider having a garage/yard sale. This way you can put the stuff aside for a while until you have enough items for the sale. What isn’t sold at the sale can then be donated.

Once you have yourself set for success that is exactly what will ensue.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something used for food preparation.

Today’s Declutter Item

I have a timer on my oven, a timer on my microwave and a stopwatch on my cell phone so why do I need this old fashioned egg timer. I don’t! So out it goes. I can’t imagine how I have missed decluttering this for so long.

Old Fashioned Egg Timer

Eco  Tip for the Day

 Avoid using throw-away items where possible. Eg. paper napkins, batteries, paper cups etc. Instead, replace these with reusable items to reduce on waste.

“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

So many people know that their homes are over cluttered, they can feel the oppression of it, but they just can’t bring themselves to deal with what seems like such a monumental task. Just last week I was having a phone conversation with my mother-in-law about this. She often reports to me what she has been decluttering lately but she still looks at the stuff around her and the items she has mounting up in the garage to sell or donate and thinks “It is such a big task still ahead!”. I told her the same thing I tell my readers “It isn’t you know, it is just one thing a day.”

She was proudly telling me how she had decluttered one hundred doll magazines that week ~ she collects, makes and dresses dolls. She decided that she just wasn’t looking through them any more and they were just collecting dust. She was clever enough to offer them to a friend that is also a doll collector to either keep for herself or donate them to the doll club. How easy was that, here one day gone the next. I pointed out to her that a little more clever thinking like that ~ to find outlets for her clutter ~ and she will see improvements in no time. Just remember how good it felt to get rid of those magazines and capitalise on that feeling.

Later that same day I read a blog post by The Minimalist about cultivating a passion to follow. It got me thinking that decluttering very quickly became a passion for me, not a chore, when I came up with the idea of doing it the easy way, one thing at a time. I have never looked back, in fact on that day and every day since I have actually enjoyed the challenge.

I get a buzz every time I choose that one thing to declutter each day and again when I send it on its way. It isn’t about being excited to one day finally reach the finish line, it’s about enjoying every step I take along the way.

I am finding it hard to put this into words but the gist of what I am saying is to celebrate every little achievement, every item, everyday. The payoff can be everyday not just at the end ~ everyday! It is like getting an excited tingle whenever you think about an upcoming enjoyable event rather than whining about the event being so far off. Like being happy to put money in the bank to save for a trip rather than just focusing on the treats you might be missing out on in order to do this. Like relishing the changes and sensations in your body as a baby grows inside you rather than just wishing that the pregnancy was over and you could just be enjoying your new baby.

Although I love it when I can see that I have made a difference most days I can’t. One small thing in a drawer doesn’t change the look of things much. However, I know that there is one less thing cluttering up my home and that is enough for me to get that warm fuzzy feeling of achievement.

What better encouragement is there than to see what is potentially a chore as a treat. If you can savour every moment then the finish line will just be the end of a wonderful journey.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something made from wood.

Today’s Declutter Item

I was using one of these pot stands on a regular basis while the other sat dormant in a drawer. In another drawer was a metal trivet that I use once a year when I make our Christmas pudding. These couldn’t replace the need for the trivet but the trivet could replace the need for these. So out they go. The trivet is now in daily use and there is more space in my drawer. Once again I was very pleased with myself with this mission accomplished. That was my little buzz for the day.

Two wooden and tile pot stands

Eco Tip for the Day

Just like my decluttering approach you can gradually improve your carbon footprint by implementing a new environmentally friendly routine into your life on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be a chore but a fun challenge to not only help the planet but quite often it turns out will also save you money.

“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

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. That’s a saying we’ve all heard and probably have said. I first truly appreciated the saying at the first garage sale I ever held as an adult. As we raised the garage door at 8:00 am, shoppers began ducking under the rising door, eager to be the first inside. The very first thing that sold was a men’s electric razor for $5. The next thing to sell was a rusted kitchen knife for 10 cents. That’s when I first came to believe that you really can sell anything.

But, of course, decluttering doesn’t have to be about selling, as we have discussed many times on this blog.

I think there are two things you need in order to make any trash to treasure (T2T) work. 1) a place for your “trash” to go and 2) and more importantly, a willingness to find that place.

Let’s start with the easiest examples.

Have Trash: your old clothes. Make Treasure: donate them to the thrift store. That’s how you turn clothing T2T.

Okay, duh Cindy, that’s obvious, but no one would want my XX. You think not? Let’s recall some of the tougher items I’ve decluttered.

Have Trash: 3 pounds of sour cream with about 1/2 C missing and a bottle of salad dressing with one salad’s worth missing. To make this into treasure, you are probably the biggest obstacle. Your embarrassment about offering slightly used food to others is holding you back from making this into treasure. I took a deep breath and offered these two things on my neighborhood list serve. Both had multiple people willing to take them off my hands. The person who took the sour cream just happened to be having a party that weekend and was pleased to have a base for various dips. She made a sour cream cake with the rest.

Have trash: Things which can be recycled, but it’s inconvenient. To make treasure: It’s your responsibility to dispose to things responsibly and in the best way your community demands. Batteries can be saved up and returned to the battery store, Home Depot or Lowes, and probably your community recycling center. The same with Compact Florescent Lightbulbs (except they go back to the lightbulb store, not the battery store). Try this mindset: You were perfectly willing to drive all over town to acquire these items. You should put at least this much effort into recycling them. (Or you can make battery art, like this creative soul.)

Have trash: Sentimental item you dislike. Make treasure: Again, you’re the obstacle here. You have to know that it’s not your responsibility to hang onto other people’s memories, stuff from the dead, or gifts you hate. Make treasure: As we occasionally say in our house, You gotta put your big girl pants on. Be okay with the fact that you don’t want these things. Then ask among the relatives (and don’t listen to their silly attempts to guilt-trip you into keeping the item), donate to a historical society (if appropriate), give to the thrift store, sell on EBay, donate on Craigslist or Freecycle. Recently my cousin has had great luck selling on Facebook classified ads, which I don’t know anything about. She lives in the country. Her rural location does not stop her from selling and buying used, and it shouldn’t stop you either.

Have trash: A wierd, awkward, or very one-of-a-kind item. Make treasure: These things are perfect for Freecycle or the free column on Craigslist. I have Freecycled battered used wooden fencing – twice (once it was used to make a goat pen and once it was used to make rustic mailboxes), and we let people pick through our construction dumpster for a single piece of wood they needed. A broken antique mirror frame with no mirror went to a furniture refinisher. Either he’ll fix it when he’s got time or he’ll use the pieces to fix up something else. A huge box of old cassette tapes were happily snapped up by a fellow driving a really old pick up truck – no CD player in that thing. All of our pencils that had been used until they were really short, and all the pens that worked but we didn’t like for some reason went to our daughters’ school. “Pencils of shame” we call them, because they were saved for girls who forgot to bring their pencils to class.

Have trash: Dirty, torn or stained clothing. Make treasure: Call around to your local thrift stores; it is likely that at least one of them is also in the fiber business. I had a hard time finding this information in my community, but it turns out that both the Salvation Army and Goodwill take items for fiber. I just need to label the bag clearly with “For Fiber. Do Not Sort.” and drop at any Salvation Army or Goodwill location. How easy is that? Now in addition to the bag I always have for items to donate to the thrift store, I have a bag for fiber too. Make treasure, part 2: In addition, when I converted my entire lawn to garden, I smothered the grass with layers of old clothing, sheets, and blankets that I have saved over the years. It made as good of layer as the cardboard I also used. Occasionally I dig up a button or a string of elastic from the garden from the fibers that have now decomposed.

What’s your hardest thing that you think you can’t find a good second life for? Let’s work together and see what we can come up with.

For more great tips on recycling your stuff check out 365’s Recycle Guide

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one dust collecting ornament.

Today’s Declutter Item

I performed only one task with this mug, a task that could be performed by something else that had multiple uses. Hence this item was just wasting space in my kitchen.

Enamel Mug

Eco Tip for the Day

When doing your weekly shop put a shopping basket in your shopping cart to put your fruit and vegetables in rather than bag everything up separately in plastic bags. I have been doing this for years and only once has the checkout person given me grief about having to weigh it this way.

“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

The problem with long term decluttering is that you lose the heady gratification of sending car loads of stuff off to goodwill or recycling depots and you no longer find yourself staggering to the counter of the post office with arms full of ebay sales heading off to their new owners. Yes the house might be looking streamline but now that we have been honed into Olympic level declutterers, every now and then we still need a metaphorical shotput to throw or a marathon to pound out so we can still have our gold medal moment.

Slow and steady is always a guaranteed method to get across the finish line, but for today I’d like us to take on a challenge to stretch our muscles. This idea came from a recent post by Colleen where I stumbled onto the idea of “Lazy Clutter” and was defined as “no attachment, you just haven’t got around to getting rid of it”. I identified with this as I have plenty of space now in all my cupboards, but there are probably still things which don’t have any reason to stay either. The bar of deservedness (as in deserving to stay in my house) has risen and what was middle of the field a few months ago, is now sitting in a marginal position. It is just a few things, here and there, and over there, oh and over there too. Some of them missed first, second and third culls of that particular cupboard or drawer as they were found elsewhere more recently and returned to their correct place since. Maybe now that the cupboard has more room it stands out as the anomaly on the shelf. Maybe we’re just waiting for the right mini challenge to dig them out and send them on their way.

During this post I commented on Lazy Clutter and pondered the idea of getting some red X stickers made (as in CONDEMNED) and to slap them on everything that I felt constituted lazy clutter. Fellow 365’er Anita added that she uses dated post-it notes to do this and Fruitcake evolved/simplified my idea by saying she was going to use red tape. And just like that, the idea was launched on its maiden flight.

So your challenge is to grab some red tape – I’m using electrical tape as it is easily removable – and blast through the house and slap a piece on everything that wouldn’t be in your dream home anymore. You don’t have to eliminate it or list it on e-bay or freecycle it or anything else today or anytime in the near future if you don’t want to. You just have to slap on a piece of tape or a post-it note or a piece of paper and cellotape. Then you need to count up how many in your house and report back.

Those who know I am on a mission to eliminate a bookcase – well I don’t think there is enough tape on the roll to do that, so I’ll just count that as one, but the old glass measuring jug in the cupboard that I bypass for the newer one, that will also count as one. The vase in the bathroom that I have put off making a decision about, well today is D Day and the extra mop I have in the cleaning cupboard (I have no idea why I have more than one mop or where it surfaced from) that is getting slapped with a bit of tape too.

The purpose of this exercise? To get a visual idea of just how many items that have Lazy Clutter status, to see how many items I know I don’t really want but either haven’t gotten around to eliminating or possibly haven’t been able to justify getting rid of up until now or maybe have been avoiding making a decision on them.

So my fellow Olympic level Declutters…..on your marks, get set, GO!

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter excess kitchen items. This is one area of the home where people seem to think ~ “The more the merrier!”. For me it is the more the messier. I bet many of you could use up a lot of red tape in this area of the house. Especially if that red tape was to mark items you rarely use.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here are some items that had my imaginary Red Tag on for some time. They weren’t mine to declutter though but all good things come to those who wait. That’s one more box of stuff off to the thrift store.

Books etc

Eco Tip For The day

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

“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 #6 – Don’t over think it

Sometimes when we are faced with what seems like a mammoth task we tend to over think the situation. For my decluttering effort each day I just walk into a room take a look around, peek in a cupboard or too and just find something to declutter. Or I might just spy something on my daily meandering throughout the house. Over thinking can cause procrastination or worse scare you off the task altogether. If you find yourself hyperventilating at the mere thought of decluttering, STOP, and take 5 slow deep breaths clear your mind and start over the easy way.

Today’s Mini Mission

Reinstate something. This might be a bottle of shampoo that has been relegated to second best. Bring it to the fore and use it up because it is always going to be second best and wasting space. Or perhaps an old pair of shoes you love but never use. If you find that even after reinstating them they are not used then perhaps it is time to let them go.

Today’s Declutter Item

Gone are the days where we buy souvenirs when we go on vacation. I must admit not having kids along with us these days certainly makes that easier. If you do have kids teach them well by not teaching them this habit.  The experience is what vacations are all about and the great memories are the best things to bring home with you.

Disney Souvenir

Eco Tip Of The Day

Turn of lights when leaving the room no matter how long you are gone for. It really doesn’t take much effort but in the long term all the energy savings do add up.

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“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