Category: 365 things

My 365 things uncluttered

I want, I want – I want it now!!!!

I think it’s time to move out of this consumerism mindset. First of all it’s expensive, and second it tends to generate stuff… and since my goal for this year is to reduce stuff…out the door the shopping sprees goes 😉

Today I’m taking a stab at decluttering my life in 2014 with a promise – to make an effort to buy only necessities. You know, needs rather than wants.

Now, this doesn’t mean I’m going to live on oats, walk around with my toe sticking out my socks, only shower once a week, never use the car, use next to no electricity and so on…. you get the picture 😉

Nope, I have every intention of still living good. In my world, I believe necessities are what you need to survive, and live a happy life.

This definition, might include items in addition to the basics of food, clothing, and shelters. But the key is; what do you really need? And even more so, do you need it all the time? or can it be an occasional treat?

Since we are all have different life’s and interests, needs will differ from person to person. Have you ever thought about what your absolute needs are?

I know, this might not be for everybody, but if you have been thinking about the same lately. You know: buying less, saving money, less impact on the environment and so forth. And if you like me, just starting out, why don’t you make a list of your own, like I’m doing below 🙂

My overall general rules

Only buy necessities. Replace an item that is broken/ used up only if I really, really need to.
I will use up the stuff I have before I consider replacing.
I will try to find creative ways to meet my needs, and make do with the things I already have before I consider buying more.

Some of my allowances

Yes, allowances, I gotta live a little 😉

Books – I can buy up to 10 books/magazines for the whole year – you might say this is not a necessity, but I love books, and house/garden magazine and believe me a total of 10 books or magazine is quite a limit for me. And I will preferable get them as e-books since I don’t want to add to my already overflowing bookshelves.

Eating out – I eat out a lot, and the goal for 2014 is to cut down to at least half the amount of times I eat out. Yes I know, eating out is not an necessity either, but it’s an enjoyment I’m not quite willing to let go of yet.

Flowers and plants – I love my garden, I might even be a little bit obsessive about it – just ask anybody that know me 🙂 And I love having plants and flowers in my house, so I will allow myself to get some summer plant for the garden and the occasional orchid or cut flowers for indoors. But I do promises to not go totally overboard like I have a tendency to do. The goal for 2014 it to cut down to procuring less than half of what I normally would.

None negational items

I have several projects inside and outside the house, that have been in the making for quite some time and are planned for this year. These I will have to spend a little money on. And even thought doing the projects might not be strictly necessities (well, some of them are starting to be), I am still sticking to my my original plan 🙂 So what are these projects you may ask? Well… I’ll let you know as I move along with them…

That is it, so far!

If I think of something else for the list I can always add it later.

But if I can do this, I’ll say it’s a good start on living with less.

Real estate value

My neighbor just sold their place, a small three bedroom town home. The other day I was talking to a friend of mine, and I mentioned that my neighbor had finally gotten their place sold. This news sparked a conversation about the price difference of a small place vs. a bigger place, and the cost associated with needing a larger home.

Now, I know some families are big and need a big place to fit everyone inn, but there are also families out there that have a big home just to have room to store their stuff.

How many times have you heard – “well, I need a big home so that I have room for all my stuff”, ok….!!! sure, it makes sense to need a bigger mortgage that will keep you in debt for longer, just to fit in stuff…!! (Yeah, that’s me being sarcastic) “What about getting rid of some of the stuff instead, so that a smaller cheaper home is big enough?”

Have you ever thought about how storing stuff, you don’t need, can be a massive drain on your finances?

In the region of Norway where I live, the difference in purchase price between a small two or three bedroom home is easily a minimum of 500 000 NOK (about 85 000 US dollars). That’s a lot of money to dish out just so that I can store some stuff that is probably not worth even close to 40 000 (7000). And just think of places like for example London and New York, where it’s way more expensive to go bigger.

Would it maybe make more sense to have a smaller and cheaper place, and then buy the items as you need them, rather than store a bunch of items just in case….?

With the extra mortgage, interest and years of debt a bigger home most likely will generate (unless you just won the lottery), your should at least be sure your stuff is worth it, either financial or emotional.

I think a good exercise while decluttering would be to look hard at the item and decide; is it really worth the money it wold cost to keep it? Is this an item I can let go off? and should I ever need such an item, would it just be easier to buy it then?

And you might say… Well I got this place and as long as I have room…. well yes… But you started this journey because you found yourself in need of a little more space and room to breathe.

And just image, with less stuff, you might be able to downsize to a smaller space one day. With less mortgage and therefor more freedom to afford to do the things you really love….

And me? My item for the day is to realize I’d rather declutter and stay put.

I love my little house 😉

Annie, get your gun!

About a hundreds years ago – yeah, I know – I’m not really that old, but still, a long time ago, I used to shoot.. with pistols and revolvers…. me and a bunch of friends. And as part of the fun we would spend time together making our own ammunition.

On one of my trips to US at that time, I thought it would be a great idea to buy my own shell casings. Especially since it was way cheaper than buying them in Norway, so I bought a bunch. For some obscure reason I never used them, and then I stopped shooting! You know how that story goes 😉

These empty shell casings have been taking up space in my storage rooms for a while now, you know, “Just in case”,and before you know it, it’s 17 years later and they are still following me around… and what the heck am I to do with empty shell casings?

Yes, you guessed it, it’s my declutter item for today… out the door… 250 shell casings went….. right into the hands of an old shooting buddy of mine.

And the agreement is, should I ever want to go for a round of shooting, he will load me up some ammo and bring a gun 😉

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I can see clearly now

I opened a drawer this morning, can’t quite remember what I was looking for, but there, all by their lonesome a couple of old glasses looked up at me….

Poor things, after I got my new fancy and adjusted glasses they had gone into oblivion, no longer needed and forgotten in the dark.

Well today they are back out, dusted and cleaned and ready to be donated to Vision for all an humanitarian organisation started by a group of opticians to help people in poor countries get glasses.

The link is to a Norwegian site, but I’m sure wherever you are there are similar organizations you can donate your old glasses to…. if you have any 😉

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My card and letter paper station

Doing my wrapping station including Christmas cards yesterday, it was natural to continue with my pile of writing paper and cards today.

I pretty much email people, rather than do hand written letters these days (guess in this digital time, hand written letters are a dying art), and I’m only going to keep some cards and small writing sheets, the rest is going out the door.

You could wonder why I keep any of my cards or paper at all. Well, I’ve found it handy to have birthday, valentine, Christmas cards available for a rainy day. It has saved my “butt” on several occasions, especially birthdays 😉

Before
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Out the door pile
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The keep box
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My Christmas wrapping station

It’s Saturday and i can’t believe how this day just ran away from me. Between the normal Saturday stuff, I’ve had people visiting me all day.

Not much time left over for my decluttering project, but even so, I did find a few minutes to declutter my Christmas wrapping stash.

Christmas is over, and I’ve found that there are wrapping items I’m sure I’ll never ever use…(haven’t used the last few years) so out it goes. No reason to keep all wrapping paper, ribbons, cards etc. There is such a thing as to much.

My pile isn’t to big (i clean up every now and then), but in the name of being “ruthless” I decluttered stuff that had passed the test before 😉

This is what I’m left with; a box of ribbons and tags, some silk paper, bobble wrap, two rolls of paper and 6 Christmas cards for next year.

Have you had a critical look at your wrapping station lately?

My decluttered items
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What I’m left with
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Taking a stab at the bookshelves

I’ve been thinking about taking a stab at my bookshelves…again.

I have done this several times over the years, and the books I have left, have survived several culling’s and it will be more difficult to par down this time around.

My read a book program
What I’ve been doing the last couple of years is; read a book, then decide – good enough to keep? or donate/toss material?

This have help me getting rid of quite a few books, but I haven’t been ruthless enough in the “how good must a book be, to be a keeper” department.

I did a count of all my different books today, and I found I have 346. For some of you this isn’t even a collection (I have friends with more than 5000) and for some of you this is a lot (I also have a friend that I know have 2 and only because they were presents). I’ve had way over 1000 at one time, so being down to 346 isn’t to bad.

But, I have a goal, and that is to fit all my regular sized paperbacks, into a special build bookcase, which unfortunately only takes 200 of them 😦

So this year, there’s going to be a little twist to my read a book program 😉

Books I love
Only books that I love are keepers and deserve a place in my bookshelves. You know, the ones you’ll read over and over again, are part of a special collection, have special sentimental value, is an absolute keep for reference/work/hobby reasons or you just absolutely have to keep for some reason or another.

Books I like
Books I like, but that are not quite in the “I love” category, will go (donate/toss or sell). I will however, write down the title and author of these books on a “could read again maybe” list. And if and when I ever decide, I need or want to read it again, I will get it as a Kindle e-book.

Books that don’t excite me
Will go – either donate/toss or sell.

Overall goal sometime into the future
My overall goal way into the future is to have most of my books as e-books, then I won’t need to use to much space in my small house for books. But as I said, way into the future. I’m not quite ready to part with all my physical books quite yet.

So let’s see how we do in 2014.

And on that note.. here is my first installment on books decluttered 🙂

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Digital clutter – emails

Email clutter stresses me out, and I’ve decided I need to get it in check this year. I’ve tried and tried before but never quite made it, but this year I’ll be ruthless!

I’ll be writing a series of posts regarding digital clutter, and a big focus will be on email clutter.

I’ve come across this great website, about how to clean up and keep your mailbox in check, called Inbox Zero It has inspired me to make a proper try this year, since I have as many as three mailboxes and they are all overflowing.

Here is my first instalment in reducing the amount of mails that come in:

Unsubscribing
Over the years I have signed up for things, bought stuff using my email address and signed up for newsletters. Unfortunately leaving your email address out there also generate spam (I’m sure we have all been here) in addition to what you signed up for, and before you know it you’re overwhelmed with emails, and not all of them relevant.

Today I have used a little time unsubscribing from a whole lot of stuff in my two personal mailboxes and I believe I should see a reduction of about 90% incoming. In addition I have deleted and cleaned them down to respective 9 and 51 emails. Not bad, if I must say so myself 😉

Now all I have to do is start tackling my work one.. And that a whole different story that is left for another day…..

How are you doing on unsubscribing and lightening the load of incoming mails?

Letters and cards

Over the years I have collected cards and letters I have received for Christmas, Easter, birthdays and other occasions.

Every 3-4 years I sift through them and toss a few of the ones I no longer want to keep.

This year I have decided to give myself a limit of how much I get to keep. I’m going to create a card and letter memory box, and the ones I keep have to fit into that one box.

Have a look at the empty box below (it’s not big) and all the letters and cards. Do you think I’ll make it? Well let’s see 🙂

What will I keep?
Some letters from family members and friends, in this day of texts and e-mails, handwritten letters are a rarity.

Letters and cards from family members that are no longer with us, I’ll keep the most special ones.

Birthday and Christmas cards from people still in my life. I’ll only keep the ones that put a smile on my face or warms my heart.

I’ve also stumbled across stuff from people that I no longer have any contact with – old friends, pen pals, others I have briefly meet over the years. All great people and good stories, but people that I have not been in touch with for years (yeah.. many years), and some I’ll admit I struggled remembering who was for a minute (ops). If I keep any, it will only be those that puts a big smile on my face or bring back a particular good memory.

So, how did I do?
I did pretty good if I may say so, you can see the result below. Filled box and pile to toss.

Decluttering my cards and letters sure brought back memories, both good ones and sad ones (like when I came across a card from my dad who passed away this year) talk about taking a walk down memory line.

My biggest problem was to dwindle it down to only the most memorable items so they could fit into the box, having all these special peoples writings.

I’ll probably make another stab at this later this year, There was no way I was going to manage to read through all the long letters today. As much fun as it is to read letters, after about 25-30 of them in one row, I just couldn’t do any more, so I saved a few of them to read and sort through later (I still got everything to fit in the box though 😉 )

I have to say, doing this, sure starts off the new year really good, it’s reminding me of all the great people I have (and have had) in my life that I care for 🙂

Have you ever thought about creating a card/letter memory box? It’s great to have if you should ever need a pick me up, you will have a box full of “loved ones” you can sit down with for an hour or two 🙂

Before (top two) and after (bottom two)
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How much do we really need?

I was packing the other day for my trip to England to celebrate Christmas with family, and before I knew it I had clothes, presents, bags and Christmas food all over the place and I suddenly found myself looking at the stuff in desperation.

How much easier wouldn’t life be if there was less choices to be made. I mean seriously, with all the stuff we tend to have, there are just so much more we need to decide on.

For example in my instance of packing for this trip. I had to choose what outfit for this that and the other occasion, what bag to pack in, that would be small enough to fit into my brothers car ( which is seriously tiny) and still big enough to hold all the stuff I needed to bring (I’m sure we all have been here). And it made me think, how much stuff do we really need, I mean really truly need.

Do we need 30 pens, 16 cocking pots and pans, 12 suitcases and bags, 42 wine glasses, several sets of china, so much cloths that it looks like you are being attacked when you open the closet, that is, if you managed to close the closet doors in the first place, and I could go on…. How much is enough all ready?

Just imagine how much simpler life could be if you had less stuff to relate to. What about: only have a few suitcases (one of each size, that could pack into each other), a closet that only had your favorite outfits in it. For dinners, only the pots and pans you really need to cook, and only you favorite china, glasses and cutlery to put out for guest. How easy would it be to throw a party then? You wouldn’t have to stress over what to put out, what fitted what, does that glass go with that china pattern?

And then some of you might say “but my guest would notice I use the same stuff all the time” Well yeah! So what? Are they visiting you to admire you china, or enjoy your food and company? Why not go with a nice white set (like most restaurants do, since food always looks best on white plates), and then stash it up with different accessories instead.

The same principle can be used on wardrobes. Have some selected key pieces, and change the look around with accessories. If you think about it, we probably do this partly already. The items I use on a daily basis, are the same pieces over and over again, and they represent only a small percentage of my closets. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Why not make these favorite items some of the key pieces in your wardrobe and clear out the stuff you never use.

As I move along into my declutter year of 2014, I’ll be taking a hard look at: how much is enough, what selected items to keep, and how I can streamline my possessions to lighten my load. But at the same time, still have enough to throw that party, dress nice, decorate my home and do the things I like.

What about you? Do you have a need to streamline a little? What will you be doing in 2014?