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 week we are going to attack those areas where fiddly bit accumulate. So many aspects of our lives involve tiny objects like pens, keys, kids toys, gadgets and the list goes on. The spaces where these things are stored need a good going over once in a while to keep them under control and that is the goal for this week’s mini missions.
Monday – Time to go through the jewellery box again and declutter any items that you no longer wear or love.
Tuesday – Small stationary items such as pens, staples, erasers, paperclips, post-it note pads etc can become perished with disuse or soiled and damaged in the scuffle. Declutter these victims of neglect today.
Wednesday – We all know that make-up has a certain shelf life and should be discarded after that time frame. Today is a good day to reassess this situation and throw out any old make-up items you now longer use or have been around too long.
Thursday – I recently went though our old games and game pieces to declutter what we aren’t likely to use again. Perhaps you need to do the same. I suggest using Snaplock bags to keep your pieces together especially jigsaw pieces because it isn’t hard for them to escape their boxes and render the whole game/puzzle useless.
Friday – If you have ignored all my previous advice and still have a dreaded junk drawer today would be a good day to sort it out again and return items to their proper homes. Perhaps there are some game pieces in there that will render one of the items from yesterdays mini mission 100% reusable again.
Saturday – Ah the utensils drawer, a place of redundant items if ever there was one. Often the home of single use gadgets that waste more time cleaning than they save using. Do yourself a favour today and free up the space in this drawer making the truly useful items easier to find.
Sunday – Anyone who has children will know that small toys, like game pieces, can be difficult to keep together. Not because there aren’t simple solutions to resolve this problem but because kids will be kids and they don’t usually care as much as adults do. Sort through the tiny toys today and declutter any broken, grown-out-of, or things with missing parts toys. I have to admit this probably is a not-so-mini mission but it needs to be done periodically nonetheless.
Good luck and happy decluttering
Today’s Declutter Item
I still love to play games but alas my family aren’t so keen anymore now that the kids are grown. I have kept some items but these ones are certainly excess to our needs and are off to the thrift shop. I was then able to move the remainder into a smaller container freeing up more space in the closet in my daughters room. Funny how we still consider it her room even though she hasn’t lived her for four years.
Games and Game Pieces
Something I Am Grateful For Today
I am grateful I haven’t gone to the football grand final with my sister-in-law and nephew. It is raining cats and dogs out there but my garden is getting well watered for which I am also grateful. Sometimes rainy days can really cramp your style but in reality we can’t live without them so there is no use complaining we should be rejoicing instead.Â
How clever do I feel? I decluttered my jewellery 2 days ago…not that it has left the house yet: perhaps that will be monday’s task for me – get it out of the building. I decluttered my make up a few days before getting married. So that is two mini missions done.
The small shelves I left outside have been takenby a happy passer by for her shed and other small items I took to a charity shop today in glorious sunshine. Here in the UK we are having a fantasic Indian summer – hottest day of the year on Oct 1. Us weather obsessed Brits are beside ourselves with glee LOL.
Hi Katharine,
getting ahead on mini missions just leaves you open for other declutter option you know. 😉 Although it is probably time you took a break and just went out and enjoyed the good weather. I wish I could say the same for our weather but at least I don’t have to water the garden.
I have never had a junk drawer. Ever. Do you suppose that might be why my junk piles up on the kitchen counters instead? Or would I just have all those piles PLUS a drawer full too? I think the second. So I pledge to clean a pile from the counter that has built up again. Some time ago I made files for the four major kinds of paper clutter that I collect, and that has helped. Now I need to figure out what else is causing that build up.
Thanks for keeping us on track, Colleen!
Hi Jo,
well done substituting one mini mission for another. It does sound like your kitchen counter is your version of junk drawer anyway so you had better get to it. Cindy’s blog this week may have some useful advice on how you might go about figuring out why those things collect on your bench so stay tuned.
Jo I don’t have drawers either, just a small chest in my boy’s room that houses their underwear, I would much rather have a pile on my counter top and I will deal with it almost immediately, no junk drawer, no horrors lurking behind closed doors, I find it much easier to deal with 🙂
Colleen, I need to revisit my Daughter’s hat boxes, she has two that keeps her My Little Ponies, Barbies and other bits n bobs. She hasn’t bothered with them in a while. She’s almost 9 and I think that maybe she has outgrown them. Thanks for the reminder, always timely!
Sharron x
Katharine, yes the weather has been glorious here in the uk, i feel like we are on holiday!!
Sharron x
Hi Sharron,
I knew you wouldn’t have a junk drawer and judging by the photos you sent me of your house I think you are more decluttered than I am. I’m not sure why you keep coming here for my advice, perhaps it should be the other way around. 😉
My Little pony and Barbie toys are certainly prime candidates for the fiddly bits clean up if ever there was any. They’re kind of like leggo, Polly Pocket and Star Wars action figures, all have a million tiny little parts that need rounding up and sorting occasionally.
Yes the 6 boxes of Lego in the garage are on my radar 🙂 Ya know that’s what i love about your blog, i’m always learning, even for a hardened declutter!!!
Sharron x
Hi Sharron,
I am not against people saving the odd thing and Lego really is a great educational and fun toy for boys and girls. I don’t know if the bears, Thomas and Star Wars will continue to be stored at my house until the kids are ready to take it off my hands but it will always be their choice. And if they go they can jolly well take it with them. 😉
I look forward to these mini challenges every week! Started today & got through the whole week of challenges! It’s funny because I often consider myself a minimalist, but these mini missions give me a chance to focus on small areas that can be easily overlooked. Although I may not find a huge amount to get rid of, it’s always fun reassessing the value I place on items. Thank you for this 🙂
Hi Megyn,
I am glad I am setting challenges that you are enjoying and succeeding with even though you might never have thought that you would even need to participate in. Well done.
I decided to list the items l have specifically decluttered today……….l think this gives more incentive for the future, plus you can pat yourself on the back.
So…. 5, count them people 5, old concert / play programs gone to the recycling bin.
An almost new yoga / exercise mat, that still has it’s box – rang my SIL and asked if she wanted it – she does – it ‘s going to her this week.
Plus 3 magazines l’ve already read, will go to SIL to read at her leisure – they can go to her space instead of cluttering up mine…….;)
Oh and some old little flat cane plate dish thing……….yeah not real good at describing stuff……….but that went out too!
Pretty happy with that lot today………good to get some old stuff chucked……….even better when it goes to someone else who will use it.
hi Felicity,
it does feel good to see it all in print,doesn’t it. The list is pretty impressive, good for you. Your sister is a winner too.
I had a huge weekend myself not only did I get rid of some things that I have been trying to rid myself of for a while but I made money out of it as well. Some of that money is for my kids which is even better.
Good stuff Colleen, always a bonus when you can get some $$$ for your items.
Thanks Felicity, I must have cleared about 1.5 square metres of living space this weekend. Wooo Hooo!!!!
“Fiddly-bits?” This weeks ‘title’ really caught my eye!!! 🙂
Ok, I’m gonna go ‘de-Fiddly-bits’ my jewelry box…then I’ll come back and post results. Somehow there should be a song here, this ‘fiddly-bits’ is just too cute a word(s)…??? Are there cartoon animals singing in the background in their wee high little cute voices? “de-fiddly-bits, de-fiddly-bits, oh how we must de-fiddly-bits those ‘fiddly-bits’ in our jewelery ‘bix”!! (No, Colleen, I have not bin de-fiddly-drinking!!!).
Hi say again Annabelle I think you missed your calling. You should be writing ad jingles at least. have fun in the jewellery box while you sing your little ditty. 😆
Ok, I’m back to report on my ‘de-fiddly-bit-ing’. 🙂
Honestly, I don’t have a jewelery box. I only wear one very lovely ring and that’s it. So I went to the ‘area’ in my wardrobe (shelf) where a jewelery box might just ‘be’, and sorted out odds and ends that had cluttered up that shelf area! :0) Then I dusted the shelf. Then I sneezed. Several times. Which then lead me to see more dust, all over, so I emptied my ‘closet’, and I dusted/cleaned/vacuumed the closet and while putting stuff back in, I de-cluttered clothing:
9 dresses
2 shirts
1 skirt
1 pair brown pants
1 long underwear top and 2 long underwear bottoms
And now, Colleen, I AM going to go have a delicious heavenly de-fiddly-bit (??? don’t know, just had to stick that ‘word’ in there) glass of wine! 🙂
Hi Annabelle,
I give you a simple mini mission and you turned it into a maxi mission. Well done buddy. Enjoy that glass of wine!
Tuesday’s mini-mission (again, turned maxi-mission) accomplished. It started so sweetly with our ‘pen’ box (aka: office supplies kept in a plastic see-thru container w/ lid on a shelf). I went through that, then went through the pens/pencils in a mug on our desk (immediately accessible); then went through my kids ‘art’ supplies box; which led to cleaning out my daughter’s toys and placing a bunch of toys to go to an orphange (it’s stuff they will take) in a LARGE box. Wowsa (ever heard of the books “IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE…”, “IF YOU GIVE A MOOSE A MUFFIN…”, etc?…well, now it is “IF COLLEEN GIVES YOU A MINI-MISSION…”. Enough for today! 🙂
Hi Annabelle,
and now thanks to Google and youtube I know the story of the mouse and his cookie. A chain of events that goes round and round in circles at least you find an eventual end to your mission even though it was completely blown out of all proportion by then. Well done, you have once again fallen for my evil yet cunning plan. 😉
They truly are the key to this process!!!
I did Wed thru Sat on Saturday.
Lesson learned: really would’ve been easier on me if I had kept to the daily schedule instead of popping four of them in one-shot (ugh!).
Hi Annabelle,
so long as they are done!