I often check the discussions taking place on Unclutter Forums and sometimes even start a new topic myself. Recently I began a topic called The Neil Armstrong Approach to Uncluttering. This topic has attracted a reasonable amount of interest mostly due to the curiosity about the title but one comment really struck a cord with me.

Pol wrote – I’ve been decluttering regularly and it simply gets easier and easier the more I do it! “Sentimental” clutter has always been the worst with me…    Each small step has opened my eyes to the damage I was causing myself, the stuff owned me.

Those four little words “the stuff owned me” really was an AH HA moment for me. This is often the case with a lot of the clutter we own. We feel tied to it for one reason or another like Pol writes and it gets to the stage where you don’t even really care for the stuff any more and it is virtually owning us instead of the other way around.

I personally find this situation appalling and refuse to be dictated to by clutter and I will think of those four words every time I come across one of those clutter items that for one stupid reason or another I find hard to part with and my shear stubbornness and determination will assist me to make a rational decision as to whether it makes sense to keep this item or not.

Thanks Pol I am most grateful for your words of wisdom.

ITEM 125 OF 365 LESS THINGS

ITEM 120 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This grooming set is a prime example of where communication is important when it comes to not cluttering up your home.

I assumed that this was a gift to my husband from perhaps his grandmother and therefore  had sentimental value as well as being functional. This week on a whim I took them out of the laundry cupboard and asked my husband if he still wanted them. His response was “No I don’t,  I thought you used them”.

So they have been sitting in cupboards moving from one house to another for heaven knows who many years and nobody has used them in all that time. Needless to say they won’t be residing in our house any longer.

It just proves the odd little saying – ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME.

Today’s item is a great example of giving back. My mother-in-law gave me this bead spinner because she knows I do a lot of beading and she thought I would find it useful. I think she may have purchased it at a garage sale or the like especially for me.

It seemed like a great little gadget and I was most appreciative of her kind gesture.  Unfortunately after experimenting with it a number of time I found it did not live up to the expectations I had of it to make threading beads quicker and easier.

This item could then have easily been relegated to the “well I can’t get rid of it because my mother-in-law gave it to me” status but I decided that since my mother-in-law is a reasonable person I would just tell her that I hadn’t found it all that useful and ask if she would like me to return it to her.

She was very accepting of the situation and said she would be happy to have it back as she could sell it at her stall at the next doll enthusiast show. Everyone was happy.

Now that wasn’t so hard and it just goes to prove that if you have a good relationship with a person trivial little matters like this will not spoil your rapport with each other.

Thanks Barb, if you are reading this, it’s good to know that after 23+ years we still get on as well as ever.

ITEM 106 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Colleen’s Helpful Hint of the Day

To get pen marks out of clothing. Spray with hairspray before putting the the wash.

(Always test fabric in inconspicuous place before using this method)

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 when they grow up.
• I may want to read that again later on. (when I have owned it long enough that I can’t remember reading it in the first place).
• It is a piece of history.
• …and the list goes on.

You do need to remember to weigh these pros against the cons before making a rational decision. Here are some of the cons.

• I already have five of these.
• I have no-where to store this.
• I can no longer see the top of the dining room table.
• I may lose a few pounds but this will probably no longer be in fashion then anyway.
• I can always borrow this book from the library if I want to read it again.
• Maybe I could fetch a good price for this if I sell it since I don’t use it anymore.
• We can no longer have visitors because we can barely get through the door of the spare room because it is so full of clutter (not always a bad thing ha ha)
• If this does come back into fashion it will probably be inappropriate for my age by then.
• On the rare occasion I need one of these I could borrow one from so and so.
• It will deteriorate over time so someone might as well be using it now while it is still useful.
• The kids would have taken it when they left home if they wanted it.
• I am not going to forget the good times we had if I get rid of this.
• Everyone has one of these but I never use mine.
• and once again the list goes on…

So please consider both sides of the situation before you decide what stays and what goes and try to be neutral about it. You will never clear the clutter if you keep justifying keeping things.

The item making the trash bin today are two old magnetic photo albums. These things can be a killer of your precious photos and I am working on removing all of my old photos from this kind of album.

Colleen’s Helpful Hint of the Day

To save water when shaving. Part fill your bathroom basin with a little warm water. Use this water to wet your hands and wipe over your legs making them damp. Use a little body lotion or moisturiser and rub over damp legs. Now shave your legs, rinsing the razor occasionally in the basin of water. When you are done use a damp face cloth to wipe your legs and allow to air dry the rest of the way. Now you have nice smooth legs and they are moisurised as well.

Today, three pair of holey Nike Skate shoes that languished in the shoe cupboard for nearly three years head to the garbage bin. We can sometimes make personal attachments to the strangest things. I suppose this is so because they remind us of a happier time in a place we would much rather still be, a common mistake we fall into that causes a lot of clutter in our lives. Purging ourselves of these useless items will not make us forget the good times, the places we’ve been or the people we’ve met along the way so don’t be afraid to let go. It is just “stuff” after all, the memories remain. The beauty of this plan is that if you don’t feel you can let something go today maybe you will feel better about it on day 100 or day 213-so what-after all there are 365 days in this resolution, just pick something else for today.