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.
I left it to the last minute yesterday to write todays missions. In fact I almost forgot because we were busy celebrating a family member’s birthday. So for my own sake and for a little fun I decided to keep it simple. Placement is the theme of today’s mission – in, under, on and behind. See if you can find something in each of the places I mention. It shouldn’t be hard because they are broad with choice.
Monday – Declutter something under a piece of furniture. The bed is often a good place to look.
Tuesday – Declutter something whose purpose is to wrap around something. Perhaps a belt, a set of sheets, and old scarf, excessive rubber bands…
Wednesday – Declutter something hanging on your wall.
Thursday – Declutter something hiding behind something. Behind a door for instance.
Friday – Declutter something from inside a cupboard.
Saturday – Declutter something in a drawer.
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
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
Colleen, good mini-missions. I’m hoping we can get some decluttering done this week. Other than a doctor’s appointment Monday we have a pretty free week. I want to strike while Mom is in the mood.
Deb J – yes strike while the iron is hot! I have just returned to work today, because it is Summer here, most commercial and industrial businesses shut down for two weeks over the Xmas and New Year’s period and today is the first round of re-openings, some stay shut an extra week but we’ve re-opened. We had big plans to get my new office (I have yet to shift into) finalised over the next couple of days but some un-booked work turned up this morning and I’m wondering if this is going to happen all week.
So I am still on holiday sleep patterns and it was really hard to get out of bed this morning, I went to bed early last night but couldn’t drop off. Given the amount of yawning I am doing right now, I don’t think it will be a problem tonight!
Moni, I hope that you are soon into your new office. I’m glad I didn’t have to go back to work. I don’t think I would be able to do it at all any more.
Deb J – LOL I don’t think I can do it all some days too. Never mind. I am setting some a couple of new boundaries in place for Jan and Feb – Sunday will be a do nothing day. No grocery shopping, no appointments, no to-do list, no household chores that can be done either the day before or after, no gardening or maintenance. I think the Jews were onto something. One day of the week to chill out shouldn’t be a big ask. And I’m not going to do housework or laundry past 8.30 at night, I think I have become a bit accommodating to the family and then wonder why I am the last person to bed and taking a long time to wind down to get to sleep.
Moni, it sounds like you are setting some good boundaries. I need to set a few new ones. One being the time I spend online.
Oh Well Moni, better for business to be coming in than simply spending money doing up the office. It will get finished soon enough. I do hope you get a good night sleep tonight though.
Colleen – I’m fortunate that I work with guys that can turn their hands to pretty much anything, so my new office fit-out is being done by them, new desk, carpet tiles etc etc so its not going to cost much at all. The down side is that that I have to wait until they’re not busy, rather than schedule contractors.
LOL – my younger daughter gave me a book to read, the sequel to one we read early 2013, as most ‘middle’ books of a series can be more about setting up for the grand finale book than and tend to be a wee bit disappointing compared to the first book (my opinion anyway) I thought I’d read a couple of chapters to wind down and get an early night. I couldn’t put it down. Nevermind, I will definately get a good night’s sleep tonight!
Hi Deb J, I hope both the doctors appointment and the decluttering go well for you. I managed to palm off a whole pile of frames to my kids last night when they were over for dinner. I feel better for having them out of my home. They were all rounded up by the front door waiting for the kids to arrive. I had been tired of seeing them there. There are more to be adjudicated on in our wardrobe.
Colleen, I’m going to a new to me doctor and I hope she is as good for me as she is for the friend who recommended her. Good job with the frames. At one time we had a pile of them but I finally convinced Mom that we would never use them. That was 2 years ago and we still haven’t needed any of them.
I hope the doctor works out good for you. I have recently changed doctors as well. She seems really lovely so here’s hoping she is also a good doctor.
Colleen, I went to the new doctor today. I like her so far. She seems to really care and that’s a big part of what I need.
When I took out our Christmas decorations, I did a quick sweep through the bins for items to declutter. Then I was a little more deliberate about decluttering when I packed items away yesterday. End result was the Christmas bin count was reduced from 12 to 8. I’m very happy with that!
Looking forward to this week’s MMs- I will apply many to my linen closet.
Vicki K, that’s great. Good job.
Well done Vicki K. Well done.
Vicki K – that’s a 33.3% improvement!
Good Mini Missions – I felt I was ahead of the pack when I read ‘under the bed’ because none of our beds have anything under them, didn’t always used to be that way but it has made vacuuming very easy.
However, I still have a lot of stuff sitting in the garage that needs to be sorted that was generated from rooms and bedrooms being emptied during painting and then taking the opportunity to only move back only what was wanted or useful. It will probably take me most of this week to get on top of that. I also have a pile of stuff at the front door that is to be returned or given to specific people but as a lot of people are away for the summer school holidays this may take a while too.
Hi Moni, I thought I would end up having to store stuff under beds here because of the limited space but once we decide which art and framed photos we are going to display under the beds should be clear. At the moment that is where these items are being stored while we await the availability of a hanging system we are going to install.
Still de-cluttering my “to do” list – nice and warm today, so I took apart and washed my Dyson vacuum cleaner. It’s drying in the sun now, no longer smelling like a wet dog…
Hi Laura, I did the same with my Dyson before Christmas. I treated it to two new filters as well. According to the handbook I should have been doing this far more often and that one filter should have been replaced some time ago. It is cleaning like a champion now. Not that I thought it was doing a bad job before.
Friday’s mission is what I need to do. I have an upstairs wardrobe/cupboard that random stuff just gets chucked into: sleeping bags, framed prints I don’t know where to hang (do I even want them?), craft stuff.
I think I need to go through everything and then maybe put some shelves up in there for proper storage.
That sounds like a good mission for you Loretta. There is always one area of the home that gets ignored for long periods of time. The plan with my new place is to get it all ship shape and keep it that way. Lets hope that plan works.
When I first moved into my apartment 4 years ago I had 8 storage boxes under the bed. Some had things in I needed on a daily basis and others were just things being stored. Dealing with them was so fulfilling – today there is nothing under my bed at all, so all I had to declutter near the bed was a magazine I finished reading last night.
As I am in an apartment I’ve no garage and I have purposely not fitted out the loft which was one of the first things I was going to do when I moved in here.
I need to decide what to do with a Christmas present given to me by my granddaugter which is a photo frame with several photos of me and her on holiday. My daughter says that my GD would be devastated if she came and it was not out as she spent ages on it. I don’t have any photos out of any of my family – I don’t have the sort of place that has the space. It is a penthouse apartment so I have lots of sloping walls and I like my hall walls to be clear and bright.
A very creative set of missions this week! I love it. I am a bit behind on my one-item-a-day decluttering and was not sure where to start so thanks for getting me going. Family came for the holiday and brought an extra duffle and guess where it ended up? Yes, I will happily start under the bed. (This is also our dog’s favorite place to hide things, so who knows what else I will find!?)
I am in! I need a solid decluttering again. 2013 was a year of a lot of changes, in so many ways, I needed to figure out how to adapt to that change. Sadly a change of lifestyle (work instead of uni) requires new and additional stuff. And while I made sure to get those things I needed, I somehow “forgot” about the old things. My home is not that decluttered as it was before.
I am starting with my bedside table. there is stuff under it and I am sure, I can find things to throw out!