As I have mentioned before I do a bit of paper-craft. For one reason or another over time I have accumulated a stockpile of handmade and shop bought greeting cards which take up valuable space in my craft area, an area that I really do need to downsize in. With fear of continuing my scrooge reputation that I established in my Day 86 blog I am now going to tell you how I intend to minimise this greeting cards situation. First of all I am not going to buy any new cards no matter what. If I don't have an appropriate card for the situation I will adapt a card I already have. I will … [Read more...]
Day 87 Replace old habits
I heard somewhere recently that it only take two weeks to start breaking out of old habits. The idea being, if you can persevere and ignore the cravings to continue in your old habit for two weeks, you will start to notice physically and mentally the change in your behaviour at this point and start to realise you can cope with the changes. Hoarding is a bad habit that most of us have an addiction to to some degree. A bad habit that for the sake of a neat and clutter free environment we need to break. According to the two week rule mentioned above once we set our mind to de-cluttering instead … [Read more...]
Day 85 Magazines by the pile
I bet there isn't one of you out there that doesn't have a pile or two of magazines somewhere in your home that have some really interesting articles, pictures, recipes... so you are reluctant to part with them. I know I do. I was an avid scrapbooker for some time while living in the Untied States and as magazines subscription are so cheap over there I didn't hesitate to have a few. As these are reference material they never really go out of date and I have often looked back through them when trying to came up with ideas when creating my scrapbook pages. Needless to say they do tend to pile … [Read more...]
Day 84 Read posts and blogs
It can be very helpful to read about other peoples experiences with de-cluttering their homes. There are so many helpful tips out there on the big Wide World Web and I will explore more of them and add some more links on my page as I find time. I have noticed while reading a few over the last couple of days that the biggest mistake for most people is setting to0 high goals. I believe, one day at a time, one room at a time, one drawer at a time are often goals easier reached and less daunting to consider. Do what works for you and if something looks too much to handle move to another area … [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...]
Day 80 Owership is not Compulsory
A couple of days ago I added my bicycle to the things that are to go to charity. I have owned a bike since I was about nine years old. I rode a bike to school almost every day from that age. I bought my first new bike when I was about sixteen and when I started working for my parents' business at the age of nineteen I used the bike to deliver the monthly accounts. The use of the bicycle got less and less once I was married and had children but it has been one of those thing that I have always owned and relied on during a long period of my life. I have never not owned one since the age of … [Read more...]
Day 78 The gift that just keeps giving???
Rule number one of de-cluttering... Just because you have something that was given to you as a gift doesn't mean you can't get rid of it. A quick story to emphasise this point. When moving house once when I was a teenager we were packing up a clock that had hung on the kitchen wall for as long as I could remember and for just as long it had been 10 minutes fast. One of us said to Mum "Isn't is time we got rid of that stupid clock it has never kept time properly" and my Mum's response was "I can't get rid of it, it was a wedding present". While carrying the box the clock was sitting in … [Read more...]
Day 77 Too much of a good thing
How many of you have all the following cleaning products cluttering up that space in the laundry cupboard, under the kitchen sink or in the garage. Microfibre Cloth & Water • Window Cleaner • Car Wash • Floor Cleaner Toilet Cleaner • Drain Cleaner • Mould Spray • Bleach Cream Cleanser • Metal Cleaner • Stove Top Cleaner All Purpose Spray • Shower Cleaner Carpet Spot Cleaner • Pre-Wash Spray In my experience you only need the four products hi-lighted to do most of the cleaning jobs around the home. Toilet cleaner with bleach will do … [Read more...]
Day 76 Sometimes we need help
Lets face it, we all have clothes in our closet we haven't worn for some time that for one reason or another we are reluctant to part with. Well, today I have a plan to help you sort out your closet and at the same time take away the difficult part of that task, choosing. Pick a friend someone you have known for a least a couple of years who you trust and value their opinion. Ask them to help you go through your closet and decide for you the items that they feel need to go. Since they have known you for a reasonable amount of time they will know what clothes they have never or rarely seen … [Read more...]
Day 73 Downsizing
Sometimes to de-clutter can mean downsizing. Today's item is a set of speakers and a tuner that have been taking up an un-necessary amount of space in our lounge room for some time. Even though we have replaced these items we still have ended up with "Less Things" because we have replaced two speakers and one tuner with one small i-Pod Docking station. This is an example where de-cluttering is costing money, even though we did sell the old items on eBay for $50 it cost $399 for the new item. Taking into account that my husband bought the speakers and tuner before we were married 23 years … [Read more...]