Today's word is... C O N S I D E R A T E Show respect for yourself, your fellow human beings and the environment... Be CONSIDERATE when shopping Constantly buying items you do not need puts a strain on the world's resources. Be CONSIDERATE to the environment To process resources to produce the items we buy puts a strain on the environment. Also the more we own the more space we need to store these items the bigger the footprint we leave on this planet. Be CONSIDERATE to family In order to purchase un-necessary items requires money that has to be earned. The more you … [Read more...]
Day 172 Less
This week here at 365lessthings I going to focus my posts on A Word A Day. Each day I will bring to you one word and I will give you my take on how the word relates to decluttering. The word for today is... Less LESS stuff, this is clearly the main object of decluttering The LESS stuff you have the LESS time spent maintaining them, cleaning, organising etc. LESS possessions to be concerned about being lost of stolen or insured. Once you learn to stop accumulating unnecessary items the LESS money you will be wasting and the LESS impact you will make on the environment. Once you … [Read more...]
Day 156 Freecycle
This week I used Freecycle for the first time and was delighted with the results. First of all I was amazed that the place I live even had Freecycle and secondly I was pleased that it gives me an outlet for items that would otherwise be difficult to find homes for. Let me explain... I listed three items, two if which were a box of baseball cards and a guitar amplifier that doesn't work. As you can see neither of these items is suitable to send to a charity because they only want stuff in working condition and baseball cards would be a bit obscure to say the least for an Australian thrift … [Read more...]
Day 127 Snow gear eBay sale
Previously I mentioned how a change of location and or lifestyle can have an impact on the necessity for certain items around your home. Our move from Seattle in the USA back to Australia has rendered our ski gear mostly useless to us as we are now 700km from the closest ski fields. Sure we might like to take a winter holiday to the snow some time but in Australia you can hire both ski clothes and equipment should that ever happen. We also have some items that no longer fit our children anyway. So I decided to sell it all on eBay. Now I did my homework first and checked similar … [Read more...]
Day 124 Revisit the gift wrap stash
Remember my blog way back on Day 86 when I decided to find a way to use up all my gift wrap items that seemed to be multiplying rather than diminishing in the linen closet. Well this weekend I attended a lovely get-together in the wine region of the Hunter Valley to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday. The weekend which included wine and cheese tastings, a lovely lunch, a bus to take us to all our destinations and overnight accommodation, cost us all $270 each. I felt inclined to provide a gift even though I was sure one wasn't expected due to the financial outlay for the event. So I … [Read more...]
Day 107 Unclutter the ironing basket
Now I know that uncluttering your ironing basket doesn't actually remove anything from your house but it sure would lighten your To-Do List leaving more time for real de-cluttering. Speaking from someone who spent at least three hours slaving over a hot iron today, I am up for any suggestion as to how to reduce this workload. It would certainly help if we bought clothes with less cotton content and more in the way of poly/cotton blend. I put fabric softener in all my loads to try to cut down on the wrinkles and I am sure that helps but not enough. I also hang the clothes on an airing … [Read more...]
Day 104 Car “Stuff”
How much un-necessary stuff do you keep in your car. My car isn't to bad (I don't think) but I will let you be the judge of that. Below is a list of the things that are currently in my car, I am literally sitting in it while typing this list. In the trunk/boot Jumper Leads Blanket Recyclable shopping bags x 10 for grocery shopping Plastic crate to store the above items Glove Compartment CDs x 8 1 pair of sunglasses Car size Yellow Pages An old rental car receipt Registration and Insurance papers Car warranty papers Tyre warranty plan Old shopping … [Read more...]
Day 103 Justifying
There are a lot of ways we go about trying to justify why we should keep the clutter that we have around out homes. Here are a selection:- I may use it some day. I am sure it will come back into fashion. So and so gave this to me. If I keep it long enough it may increase in value. I might loose weight and it will fit me again. It has sentimental value. Everyone has one of these. I paid a lot of money for it so I am not getting rid of it until I get my money's worth out if it. Maybe the kids will want it when they grow up. Maybe the kids will want to give it to their kids … [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 98 Garden Downsize
I live in a townhouse so I don't have much to care for in the way of garden or lawn but for what I do have I am endevouring to minimalise the amout of equipment and time required to maintain it. I only purchase/aquire plants that can survive my neglect, requiring little watering or pampering in any way and hardy enough to cope with the varying climate we can get here at times. When we first moved into the property we owned a lawn mower and an edge trimmer which seemed a little overkill for a lawn 5m long by 1.5m wide so my husband bought a rotory hand mower and gave the other items to … [Read more...]