My 2014 goals – how did I do?

2014, 365 things, Declutter, Garden, Goal, Minimalism, Monthly tally, Necessities, Replacement, Simplify, Year of saving 3 Minutes

In 2009, after having lived in the US for two years, I came home with enough stuff to fill up a entire house (after having furnished an empty condo in Houston), and I already had a house full. Since then I have slowly but surely gotten rid of stuff, and I’ve dwindled it down to one household again. But as good as I had been at it, I felt that there was still more that could go out of the house. Which is why I decided a year ago that I would make 2014 a year to declutter and living with less.

And to be accountable – I started this blog 🙂

I decided my main goal, would be to get rid of an average of at least one item a day, all through 2014 – yepp, 365 items!

I also made a second goal, a promise in my post I want. I want – I want it now!!! – to make an effort to buy only necessities, needs rather than wants.

Have I managed what I set out to do? The short answer – YES!

So here it is – my MAIN goal;

2014 tally of items out-the-door  – 634 items, 2200 bookmarks and 14485 emails 🙂

Curious about what items I shed? Check it out;

  1. January tally – 63 items
  2. February tally – 45 items, 2200 bookmarks and 2450 emails
  3. March tally – 12 items and 7535 emails
  4. April tally – 58 items and about 4500 emails
  5. May tally – 126 items
  6. June tally – 22 items
  7. July tally – 22 items
  8. August tally – 45 items
  9. September tally – 103 items
  10. October tally – 7 items
  11. November tally – 23 items
  12. December tally – 108 items

My second goal – only buying necessities; 

I did better on this during 2014 than I did in 2013 (which was the first time I tried this). I replaced broken items, only if I had too. I used up before replacing or even did not replaced at all.

I did really good at not buying anything but necessities, until my trip to US in September, when I ended up buying some clothing I didn’t really strictly “need”. I do however have an excuse as my luggage was lost for several days, and I got sick of walking around in oversized men’s clothing that I had borrowed. So I caved and bought some ladies things 😉 And it’s not like the clothing won’t come in handy, when I wear out my older stuff…

Other than that, as far as I know, there are only a few other items I got, that were strictly not a necessity. 1 small box set I thought was really cute, that I really haven’t found a use for, yet! And then I got a a few cheap IKEA wine glasses for my birthday grill party, as I did not have enough glasses for the champagne toast! (thinking about it, I believe this could be considered a necessity 😉 )

I did have some allowances for the year! Things I could do and things I could get that aren’t really necessities;

Books – I could buy up to 10 books/magazines – I bought one physical book, and two or three e-books

Eating out – the goal was to cut down to half the amount of times we (a friend and I) eat out compared to 2013 – we didn’t quite manage, as we only cut 39% on times. But what we did manage was to cut the amount we spent, with more than 50%, which was ultimately the goal.

Flowers and plants – The goal for 2014 was to cut down to procuring less than half of what I normally would – Done 🙂 I did even better than half as I cut my procurement of plants for the garden closer to 70% compared to any other years.

So all in all, I would say that I passed my goals for 2014!

Did I pass with flying colours? Hmmm, probably not, I’m sure I could have done better, but I’m pretty happy 🙂

 

Published by Anne Lene @ MinimalistSometimes

Published

22 thoughts on “My 2014 goals – how did I do?”

    1. Me? An inspiration? What can I say other than, thank you, thank you, thank you 🙂 You DO know that it’s you guys that keep me going, right? If it wasn’t for you I might haven given up a long time ago….

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    1. Thank you! I love how we have become such a fun group of people, keeping each other on track 🙂 I can’t always utilize your savings ideas (as I’m in Norway and we don’t have your shops over here) but you keep reminding me to look for good deals over here. Wich has saved me some money this year 🙂 Thank you!

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  6. Sounds like flying colors to me! Really wonderful. It must feel great. What are you up to for this year? Gonna write a post on it? (Hint hint. 🙂 )

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  8. Way to go on the results!! Well done, Sweetie. I’m sorry to hear you’ve been sick by the way. Glad you are feeling better. I’m heading to London this Sunday and will be closer to you, so closer to your time zone…lets have a good long catch up talk. Sound good? Miss you and love you, Ed

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    1. Thanks, I didn’t do to scruffy on decluttering, did I 🙂 London, niiiiice 🙂 you’re almost in Noway, just a little water between us, as opposed to a BIG water 🙂 Would be nice with a good catch up! Big hug, luv ya!

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  9. Pingback: Plans for 2015? | Minimalist Sometimes

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