In the year 2000 I created my first scrapbook project ever. I had no supplies so I went to the store and bought a few sheets of paper and some embellishments in order to create a small, soft bound encouragement album for my boss who was going through chemo. I made the pages, decorated two as the intro and my page and then passed it among our co-workers so they could decorate a page according to their tastes. When it was done I had nothing left of the supplies. That was good. Not long after that I was invited to a scrapbook supply selling party. It was fun. I enjoyed what we made. My boss … [Read more...]
Craft Like a Beginner
Have you ever had a craft/hobby that got completely out of control. Not so much the making of items but the accumulation of crafting supplies. I most certainly have. Through that experience I have learned a few things and here is my advice on avoiding this problem. Always supply your craft hobby as though you are a beginner. Any wise person who starts a new hobby generally begins with the minimum of supplies in order to try it out to see if they are really going to enjoy it. They buy or better still borrow the basic equipment or perhaps even take a class where the equipment is provided. Then … [Read more...]
How Do You Know You Need to Declutter?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom While we have plenty of old pros here at 365 Less Things, we have plenty of drop-by readers and lurkers, some of whom are probably in denial about their need to declutter. So here's my checklist, roughly arranged from the most obvious to the most subtle clues that you should use if you think that maybe you don't really need to declutter. You rent a storage unit. Your garage, basement, or attic looks like a storage unit. You have a whole room devoted to storage. You have a door in your home that you cannot open. You have a door in your home that you cannot … [Read more...]
Day 277 A declutter gift
Just a quick post to prove to you that I do practice what I preach even when social convention challenges me to have second thoughts. This weekend we took a trip interstate to be involved in a birthday surprise for my husband's mother who will turn seventy later this month. The main object of this surprise was for all her four children to be there with her in one place at one time for the first time in seven years. As she made a point of mentioning during the celebration, this may well be the last time it happens because it isn't easy to orchestrate with all four children living in different … [Read more...]
Day 223 Clutter weakness
Everyone seems to have at least one clutter weakness. Mine was paper crafting supplies and magazines. Even when I was at the height of my paper crafting days I think I was more addicted to shopping for supplies than I was to using them. I did do quite a bit of the craft but I bought a whole lot more than I was ever going to need even if I had continued at the crafting pace I was at. I am not sure what really turned me off my addiction but I think it may have been photo clutter. The beauty of digital photography is also its downfall. You can take as many photos as you can fit on you DS card, … [Read more...]
Day 175 Slow
As you would know if you have been reading my blog this week, we are concentrating on one word a day. Today the word is... S L O W By SLOW I mean *** back off a little *** take it easy on yourself *** take it easy on those around you *** do things at a pace that allows you to to be fully present *** give yourself time to make good decisions ***need I go on. In this day and age of "multi-tasking", over achieving, higher education and generally just keeping up with the Jones's, it is very easy to cram your life full of expectations and activities that you think are necessary to appear … [Read more...]
Day 159 Use it up
I want to lay down a challenge this week to all you readers out there. THE CHALLENGE Find at least 5 consumable items in your home that have been lingering on a shelf somewhere. My definition of consumable is something that can be depleted or worn out by use. Concentrate on choosing these items over similar items you prefer to use until they are all used up and no longer cluttering up your home. Possible reasons for lingering didn't live up to expectation for some reason you just stopped using it just have so many of a similar item to choose from bought a similar item you … [Read more...]
Day 106 Giving back
Today's item is a great example of giving back. My mother-in-law gave me this bead spinner because she knows I do a lot of beading and she thought I would find it useful. I think she may have purchased it at a garage sale or the like especially for me. It seemed like a great little gadget and I was most appreciative of her kind gesture. Unfortunately after experimenting with it a number of time I found it did not live up to the expectations I had of it to make threading beads quicker and easier. This item could then have easily been relegated to the "well I can't get rid of it because my … [Read more...]
Day 100 Procrastination-Clutter of the mind
Ahhh, procrastination how that can clutter up your mind and paralyze you into ineffectiveness. I can spend days on procrastinating about something that will probably physically only take ten minutes to deal with. How crazy is that. At this moment there are four little white dishes on my craft table with unfinished projects, repair jobs and samples that await my attention or for the artistic inspiration to create something with. I look at them quite regularly and they annoy me no end yet I leave them sitting there taunting me day in day out while I find "better" things to do with my … [Read more...]
Day 81 Every little thing counts
On January 15th my give-away for the day was wedding invitations that I made for a friend's daughter's wedding. My husband said that was a cop out and not really purging anything yet I thought this was one of my best donations yet. You see I have a lot of papercrafting items such as tools, cardstock , paper, adhesive, embelishments.... but I really haven't been doing a lot of papercrafting lately. I have previously made the invitations for the engagement party and when I was asked to do the wedding invitations I thought what a great oportunity to contribute to their special event and purge … [Read more...]