When out picking up a few groceries the other day, I noticed a woman getting her handbag checked as she exited the shop. Nothing unusual about that except the lady had to rest this bag on a nearby store display in order to open all three compartments that were so crammed with God knows what that she could barely get the zippers open. There was no chance she was about to steal anything because quite frankly she couldn't possibly have fit another thing in. Although she quite possibly had already stolen 3 paperbacks, half a dozen DVDs, a flat pack bookcase and 2 bags of potting mix the way … [Read more...]
Day 96 Sunscreen multiplies and expires
Although my toiletries are one of those things I have well and truly under control, sometimes certain items do seem to multiply and then reach their expiry date while I'm not looking. Sunscreen is one of those items that tends to do this due to a number of reasons like... An unplanned trip to the beach where a "pink pelt" like me has to lather on the sunscreen or that pink soon turns to blistered red so you duck to the nearest convenience store to buy a bottle. A planned trip to the beach where you forget the sunscreen and rather than go all the home you are forced to buy another … [Read more...]
Day 95 Going to Extremes
While cruising the Internet looking for inspiration on the topic of decluttering I found a few interesting articles that take downsizing and minimalism to greater extremes. I am not prepared to go to that extent, not at this point anyway, but they were inspiring and made me feel that what I am attempting seems like a walk in the park. When I say "a walk in the park" I don't mean it demeans my efforts in any way, it just helps me see the bigger picture and I now feel very comfortable that the small sacrifices I am making are not such a big deal. Some of the topics to google when looking … [Read more...]
Day 93 Your views on decluttering
Today I just wanted to point out that just below the photo for each days Post there is a tiny word "comments", if you click on that you have the opportunity to leave feedback, share your stories or even mention an area of decluttering you might like help with. I would love to hear from you and appreciate your tips and views. Yesterday I had a comment from Janetta who has been inspired to start decluttering again. She is even reducing by a bag of things some days because they are only small items. As I have said before "Every Little Thing Counts" whether alone or by the … [Read more...]
Day 91 Stocking up or obsessing
I once came across and article in a scrapbook magazine with a survey to determine whether the reader was a scrapbooker or a collector of scrapbook supplies. This may seem amusing to some but there is an fine edge that one can easily slip over when at the height of a crafting obsession. This applies to all crafts and hobbies, woodworking, quilting, knitting, beading, model making... the list goes on. So beware and try to put a limit on the amount of supplies you allow yourself to amass. It is very easy to get carried away. Tastes change, trends change and life changes and one day you may … [Read more...]
Day 90 Uncluttering, the cure for retail therapy
I have discovered that uncluttering is the cure for resorting to retail therapy. How often do we use retail therapy to make up for times when we feel down, disappointed, bored and other conditions of the mind. What does this kind of therapy do to improve the situation? Usually it just adds more problems like credit card debt, guilt and regret. It has amazed me how quickly I formed a dislike to shopping once I committed myself to my 365 day resolution to de-clutter my home. Now when I get spare time I don't get bored, I use that time to find the next thing I am going to get rid of or try to … [Read more...]
Day 89 Just because everyone else has one
I am Australian and my give-away for today is a barbecue. If you are from another country you may wonder what is unusual about being Australian and giving away a BBQ, so I will explain. Just about every household in Australia has a BBQ, because of our climate we are a very outdoorsy kind of people. When friends come around for a meal the normal procedure is to "chuck a steak on the barby". Personally though I would rather cook a nice roast dinner, a spicy curry or maybe make gourmet pizza and as a result our BBQ has not been used for the last three years since we took it our of storage … [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 86 Recycle & Reshuffle
While looking in the linen closet to determine whether there were any old towels I could throw away my attention was drawn to some rolls of gift wrap and a box of gift bags. Which got me thinking about the chest full of other gift wrap paraphernalia in the closet down stairs Now you may think what I am about to suggest is strange but I will explain my thinking as we go along. I rarely buy gifts (This is strange to most people). I live a long way from most of my family, postage costs are ridiculous and they all can pretty much afford to buy anything they would want anyway, as can I. Not to … [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...]