 Herbs and spices! How many do you have? Do you use them often? How old are they? As you can see we have way more than we need. The majority of these are seldom used and some never used. They have been around way too long in my book. It drives me nuts but this is another place where Mom has her ideas and she isn’t going to change. I’ve tried. Some of these moved with us 5 years ago. Yes, that’s right! Five years ago!! I wish it would all disappear. I think we would be much better off if we tossed it all and just bought things as we use them and then in small … [Read more...]
Know yourself, know your clutter.
Way back at the start of my declutter journey it was obvious that my craft collection of tools and materials was way out of hand. Especially since I hardly bothered to find the time to use them. So I set about deciding which tools I used and which ones I didn't and which materials I didn't like so much. Separating the wheat from the chaff so to speak. As you can see there is a vast difference between the before and after shots above. But this didn't happen overnight. It happened gradually through several sorting sessions to decide what I use, what I don't and what I thought I never … [Read more...]
Cleaning out closets ~ By Linda Bailey
Here is a guest post from July 2013 by Linda Bailey from housekeeping.org that I thought was worth repeating for the lessons it contains. Enjoy! So I tend to bite off more than I can chew. A few months ago the opportunity to have everyone out of the house for a weekend seemed like the perfect time to do some major cleaning up. I had high hopes. I was going to tackle the worst room in the house. It was filled floor to ceiling with boxes from the move and just had enough floor space to walk a thin path around it. Since the move had taken place some five years before I had the brilliant idea … [Read more...]
Beware the product demo!
I am writing this post with this weeks mini missions in mind. It might help you identify some of those too hard to use items loitering in your home. However the intention behind it is actually to help you avoid acquiring such gadgets in the future. When viewing product demonstrations, whether in store, at a home show, on television or online, one thing to remember is that you aren't shown the full picture, and the person demonstrating the product may have had hours and hours of practice. The simplicity of operation of a gadget is enhanced by that fact that you don't see  the staging of the … [Read more...]
Fourth Thursdays with Deb J ~ Pots & Pans
We have a plethora of pots and pans as you can see by the picture (see below). This is an area I feel needs to be decluttered. Does anyone need this many cooking pots? Maybe a gourmet cook, which we are not. There are 3-4 of these we use on a regular basis. We make a lot of soups in the stock pot. We water sauté veggies a lot in the big skillet. We use the medium pot for steaming and the smaller one for cooking individual veggies. So why in the world do we have all the rest? Because Mom says we might need them. Mind you, we also have a microwave we use with a couple of covered glass dishes … [Read more...]
No Regrets
On our daily walks by the beach my husband and I pass by a little rock pool area. As we walked by the other day I wondered something of Steve that not one minute later he put into words ~ "Do you sometimes regret decluttering the snorkelling gear?" After laughing and telling him I had just wondering if he though that, my unreserved response was no. You see we had had that snorkelling gear for at least twenty years when I finally decluttered it. It hadn't been used for about nineteen of those twenty years. The fact is that if I hadn't began this declutter mission, and let go of all the things … [Read more...]
Efficiency v Plastics
There was a lot of chatter generated yesterday about an overabundance of plastic containers. It seems most of us still have an excess of these. In a bid to reduce food items in both the fridge and pantry due to my long vacation and impending move late last year, I have become very efficient at catering, shopping and using up leftovers to the point where my need for plastic containers has become greatly reduce. I mostly shop for fresh produce, meat and dairy these days from which there is very little waste. Any leftovers are soon devoured. I have also eliminated several baking items in my … [Read more...]
Happy New Year ~ What is your resolution
Hi there. Just a quick post today to say welcome to any new readers scouring the internet for suggestions of New Years resolutions. I have one for you ~ Resolve to declutter one thing a day for a whole year. It isn't hard but it sure is effective if your house is currently cluttered. For those of you who have been decluttering for a while set a decluttering resolution that suits where you are at with your mission to unclutter. My resolution this year is to get rid of anything that doesn't fit comfortably into my lovely new little two bedroom apartment. I am loving it here and the only thing … [Read more...]
My latest decision making
You might be wondering what could Colleen possibly have left to declutter after three and a half years of downsizing. Well let me tell you, the decision making becomes a lot easier when limited space is immanent. With only two bedrooms it becomes easy to decide to let go of a few more towels and a couple of pillows. Visitor space is limited therefore catering for them requires less stuff. With only a single car space and a small lock up cage what used to be stored in our spacious two car garage also needs to be limited. Couple that with no yard to care for and I was able to declutter most of … [Read more...]
From the Archives ~ Day 294 The Wedding Dress
This week Cindy sent me a link to an article for Friday's Favourites. It is an article about what to do with your old wedding dress. Cindy had written a post about this subject back in 2010 so I thought I would share that with you today to get you thinking about the subject ahead of Friday. I have to admit I still have my wedding dress which I only retrieved from my mother-in-law's house last year. I tried it on at the time but of course it didn't fit as our wedding was 26 years ago. I am glad to say that it did however come close to fitting. It really is time that I figured out what to do … [Read more...]