So it seems that most of the excess in my home is crafting items. Not that that would come as a surprise to most of my long term readers. So once again today my decluttering turns in that direction. This brings to my attention the problem of acquiring things that end up partly used or, worse still, not used at all. This often happens when one encounters things that they like the look of, and acquire them with the intention of using them in the future when an occasion or inspiration arrives. Often the compulsion to acquire such things in the moment is the fear that if you don't take the … [Read more...]
A Thing a day ~ Days 5-8
So once again I have been into the craft supplies to find some items I am happy to relinquish. I listed them on Freecycle.org and they were claimed and should be collected on Thursday by a lady who is getting them for a friend who loves to scrapbook but lives on a low income. I so love it when my excess stuff goes to those who otherwise could not afford to enjoy them. In fact it makes it easier to let things go that I might otherwise cling on to. I hope to make a connection with this person so that in future I might be able to gift them some more of my crafting supplies. “If we do … [Read more...]
A thing a day ~ Days 3 & 4
The item for day three is a batch of cleaning rags etc, from my laundry, that don't perform very well. What use is a cleaning rag the doesn't leave you with a perfect finish. So these are going in the bin. I'd donate them but that would only be foisting the problem onto someone else. The items form day four are a selection of greeting cards that I have filled out ready to post for the December birthdays. They may not seem like a declutter item to you but the truth is that I have been so slack at posting birthday cards this year that the stash I have has become like clutter to me as … [Read more...]
A thing a day ~ Day 2
I forgot to mention yesterday why it is, after so much decluttering has been done in my home over the years, that there is still excess stuff to be removed. And here is my explanation. My original goal was to reduce my belongings in order to fit into a smaller home. This goal was achieved with a little wriggle room. However I would like a little more than just wriggle room so the two bedroom apartment, that I now live in with my husband, feels a little cluttered to me. So this new goal of removing one thing a day for 30 days, and possibly more, is all about minimising further. I imagine … [Read more...]
A thing a day ~ Day 1
It has concerned me for a while that my posting here at 365 Less Things has been very sporadic, and that even has begun to occur with the Monday Mini Mission posts. I put this down to a couple of things. One is personal commitments that seem to take up so much of my time of late. And the other is that my interest in writing about decluttering has waned with my lack of a decluttering goal. This goal concept has always been a thing here at 365 Less Things but I didn't realise how much of an encouragement it was for me until recently. With the lack of an actual goal to work towards when it … [Read more...]
Dithering? ~ By Peggy W
I have dithered many times in my decluttering journey, unable to make a decision about my stuff. Two of the “ditherees†left my house this morning because I needed soft fillers to keep the glass bowls I was donating from clashing with each other. One item was a top I bought that always looked better on my younger daughter than it did on me. When she left home, she also left the top. I thought this morning that I’m never going to wear that again and it’s not my other daughters’ style, so out it went. The other item was a pair of nice warm slippers. They didn’t have an … [Read more...]
What is right for you?
I often get comments from people contradicting my suggestions regarding what to declutter and pleading their case on why they keep certain items or collections of things. Avid readers love their books, baking enthusiasts love a good range of pans and utensils, crafters, like myself, will cater to their craft, perhaps even over cater. There are also shoe lovers out there, fashionistas, modellers, family history caretakers, plant enthusiasts, collectors of all sorts of things... The purpose of my blog is not to insist that we all live a completely minimalist lifestyle. I don't, so it would be … [Read more...]
Love it or heave it (Revisited)
As you may have guessed, due to the lack of them, I struggle to come up with new posts these days, mostly because I declutter much less now, therefore the inspiration for posts isn't constantly forthcoming. Today it occurred to me that I have been blogging about this subject for over six years now, so why not repost some of my old articles. They are still as relevant as they ever were, not everyone has read through all the archives and we could all do with a refresher of information previously disseminated. So without further adieu here is todays revisited post. Take a look around your home … [Read more...]
Clutter, why?
Clutter isn't about what we have, it is about why we have it. We acquire stuff for many reasons, aesthetics, functionality, sentimental, recreation and entertainment and even societal, just to name a few. In fact those few reasons just about account for most of the excess stuff in our lives. So lets just take a closer look at them. Aesthetics ~ The stuff we enjoy mostly because it is pleasing to the eye such as art and décor items, fashion accessories, jewellery. Functionality ~ These are items we acquire that are useful to us in some way, generally to make our lives simpler or … [Read more...]
Procrastination is worse than just getting on with it.
Wendy B wrote this very wise statement in a comment recently in regards to decluttering ~ "The thought of tackling the job is often more consuming than doing the job itself." How very true this is. I bet there are many of you out there who spent more time and metal energy putting off your decluttering than the time and effort that you actually needed to put into it once you got started. I was a little guilty of that myself to be honest. I knew, before returning home to live in Australia in 2007, that downsizing was our ultimate goal, but aside from the necessary ejection of stuff … [Read more...]