I have spoken about this subject before on 365 Less Things, however, having just moved, I am finding it necessary to do a little more of it. Things have become a little scattered during my move. Mainly due to the fact that rooms have been eliminated from my options of where and how to store things. The office space/craft area/parents retreat has turned into the office space/craft closet/guest bedroom. The laundry/third toilet/storage closet has become the laundry closet. The kitchen/family room/dining/living room/entry with cupboard has become the living room/kitchen/dining room. And needless … [Read more...]
Fourth Thursdays with Deb J ~ Someone Else’s Clutter
We moved here to Arizona 5 years ago. We had very benevolent former owners. They just knew we could use a number of things so left them here for us. Along with a yard containing 6 fruit trees, two rosemary bushes, two grapevines, a jasmine, a honey suckle, 5 Texas Sage bushes, 3 western petunias, 8 rose bushes and a bougainvillea. They also left a couch, two garden chairs, a metal patio sink, and bunches of “construction/building†materials. Now, mind you, they had done a wonderful job of updating the house. The kitchen was “to die for†and the pantry and laundry area were very handy. … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Moving
Last month, I helped my friends, The E family, move. In the last month, I also helped my daughters' school pack for a move. The Es have lived in their house 13 years; the school has been in this location 10 years. Let me tell you, I have seen a lot of junk, stuff, things, good stuff that's no longer needed, beautiful useful items, heirlooms, and lost & found in the past month. A lot. Moving really forces you to focus in on what's essential. This is especially true for the school, which is being torn down and rebuilt. For the first half of the next school year, The Girls' School of Austin … [Read more...]
How Do You Know You Need to Declutter?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom While we have plenty of old pros here at 365 Less Things, we have plenty of drop-by readers and lurkers, some of whom are probably in denial about their need to declutter. So here's my checklist, roughly arranged from the most obvious to the most subtle clues that you should use if you think that maybe you don't really need to declutter. You rent a storage unit. Your garage, basement, or attic looks like a storage unit. You have a whole room devoted to storage. You have a door in your home that you cannot open. You have a door in your home that you cannot … [Read more...]
Are You a Cook or a Cookbook Collector?
You may love to cook or you may hate it. No matter how you feel about cooking, I bet you have at least 6 cookbooks, and I'm certain that someone reading this blog today has at least sixty cookbooks. They're fun to look at, fun to collect, fun to page through and dream with. But let's be realistic: they're also expensive, easy to ignore, and hard to declutter. Prior to December 2009, I probably had two dozen cookbooks, and I don't think I'd ever gotten rid of one that I owned. I just added to the pile; I loved them. When we remodeled our kitchen, I had a special bookshelf made just for … [Read more...]
Day 280 Why do we torture ourselves?
There has been one item in our home that has been there tormenting us for three years. This otherwise harmless item is pictured below for you amusement... Like I said it looks harmless enough and yet it has been a constant source of clutter torture for far too long. The lamp has been assembled then dismantled then all the wiring pulled out of it then assembled then dismantled then assembled again. Our intention, when we brought it home to Australia from the USA, was to rewire it and continue to use it in our new home. USA runs 120 volts while Australia runs 240 volts if you were … [Read more...]
Day 254 Chemical declutter
Minimalizing Chemical Clutter Guest Post by Betty Jo Martin – joy with less Over twenty years ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS). In broad terms MCS means an unusually severe sensitivity or allergy-like reaction to many different kinds of pollutants including solvents, VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds), perfumes, petroleum, diesel, smoke, mercury, lead, "chemicals" in general. The list of toxic chemicals used today in our homes, yards, and offices/studios are too numerous for me to list. My physical decline began in my thirties when the first ever … [Read more...]
Day 132 Give Away – Throw Away – Sell
Today I am giving you a tally of what has been thrown away, what has been given away and what has been sold on eBay since the beginning of my new years resolution of 365 less things. There is an upside and a downside to this count though. The upside is that most of the items I have uncluttered from my home have either been donated to charity, given to friends or sold on eBay. As I have mentioned before the advantage to this is that they have gone to new homes where they have the chance of being used to their true potential. The downside is that the reason behind the fact that there has … [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 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...]