Category: 365 things

My 365 things uncluttered

It’s Wii time!

When I lived in US, I got a little carried away and bought myself a Wii.

You’d think I was 5, but what the heck.. I don’t care what age group you are, Mario Kart, is fun.. 😉 OK, so I didn’t really get it for the Mario Kart as I got the Wii Fit balance board and everything with it! Turns out though, that it was mostly used for games, not exercise  – funny that 😉

Since I got home from US, the Wii haven’t seen much use, as it has mostly been tucked away in one of my drawers, and it’s time to let it go!

My neighbours kids are 7 and 9, and I have tested that my american Wii works on her Norwegian television, so this weekend the Wii will be installed in her house, rather than mine 🙂

I might miss Mario a little (I told you it was fun, right), but I sure won’t miss it filling up one of my drawer.

So here it is, all the Wii stuff – 12 items out-the-door!

  • 1 Wii with power and receiver
  • 1 Wheel
  • 2 Nunchucks
  • 2 Controls with plastic protective cover
  • 1 Wii Fit Balance board
  • 5 Games

2015-02-06 10.15.45

 

Plans for 2015?

We are halfway into January, and you’re wondering, do I have any plans for 2015?

Yes, off course 🙂

I have plans within the areas of decluttering, finance, exercise and life in general! Why don’t you let me tell you all about it 😉

Declutter
In 2014, the focus was mostly on decluttering, and I’m afraid I still have ways to go 😦 Seems like decluttering and getting less stuff, inspires me to want less and less. So I will continue this in 2015. Last years goal was to declutter one item a day (365 items) and I far succeeded that, so I thought maybe I should try that one, one more time.. I think it will be harder this year to find the 365 items, but I’m sure gonna try 😉

I don’t know if you remember! Just like I’m reading myself out of my bookshelf, I’ve decided to watch myself out of my movie collection, and I also have this big, actually huge, photo project which I mentioned for you guys in November, that I will be spending time on this year.

My declutter goals for 2015;

  • 365 items
  • 100 Movies – that’s half of my collection
  • Cut my physical DVD series collection by 30% (yeah, that’s a lot, I have a lot, a lot of series)
  • 34 books –  I did 82 or something like that, out-the-door last year, but now I’m getting into more of the books I love…
  • Photo collection – oh lord…  I can’t even tell you what my goal is for this year! Half maybe?
    My overall goal is to keep key photos as physical photos, scan the other ones I’d like to have access to, and get rid of the rest. Now having several thousand photos, this is a task that will take time, and most likely spill over into 2016…

Only buying necessities
My focus last year on only buying necessities ( I want, I want – I want it now!!!) served me very well, as I had to spend quite a bit on medical treatments instead. It served me so well, I think I’d like to continue the focus this year. But with a small change compared to last years – I will add an allowance;

  • Books – I can still buy up to 10 books/magazines – preferable as e-books
  • Eating out – We did pretty good last year – we will try to squeeze even more this year, by reducing another 25% on last years results.
  • Flowers and plants – stay at the same level of last years result
  • New allowance: I can buy up to 10 non essentials throughout the year 🙂

Other financial goals
Last year I managed to pay off my car (a few months early) and I’m pretty happy with that 🙂 My ultimate goal on the other hand, is to have my house mortgage paid off, in 16 years or less, compared to the 25 it was originally. I’m 7 years in and have almost halved the mortgage so far, which is phenomenal! But it’s getting harder now that I’m on a severely reduced pay due to not working so much. Every January I pay a lump sum towards the mortgage, so my goal for 2015 is to save up 60 000 NOK for my lump sum in January 2016. If I manage that on my reduced pay, I’m doing very well.

Activity and exercise
Due to illness I have not been the most active person the last few years, every time I think I’m ready to start exercising, I’ve managed to screw that up somehow, and I’ve gotten worse again. Now on the other hand, I’m feeling better than ever and I think it’s time to give it another shot. But this time around I’m going to be careful about it and take my time!!!

The goal for this year is to build up to, by the end of the year: 7 days of activity a week, with 3 of these as real workouts.

  • By activity I mean something that gets me up and going and preferable out of the house, like a walk in the neighbour hood, work in the yard, run around playing with kids… just about anything that gets me out of that couch, gives me some fresh air, and brings me into a moving state 😉
  • With real workout I mean an activity like for example going to the gym, yoga, biking, running, Rollerblade … you get the drift.

Other activities/projects this year
I have a few other things on my agenda 🙂 Like; travel, projects in my yard, other projects, throw a garden party, ++
But these, I think I’ll tell you more about, as we move into the year 😉

So that’s it for my 2015 goals… enough don’t you think?

 

My 2014 goals – how did I do?

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 🙂

 

December tally!

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the month already. As we all know, December is the month of Christmas. With all the preparation and celebration, that entails, it doesn’t really leave much time for any other activities.

Even so, I did manage to squeeze in some moments to spend on other tasks and to celebrate my blogs 1 year aniversary! Woohoo!

Since tomorrow is new years eve, I kinda figured I won’t be decluttering any significant stuff these last to days. So I decided to post Decembers tally early 😉

And here it is. DECEMBERS TALLY of things “out-the-door” =  108 items!

6 items – during My Christmas shed

  • 2 shirts
  • 1 cardigan
  • 1 sweater
  • 1 vest
  • 1 painting

90 items – that I had been holding on for my neighbour to check first – In finally out of here

  • 2 magazine holders
  • 3 microwave items
  • 1 ice cube tray
  • 3 plastic boxes to store food in + a box of ziploc bags
  • 1 serving tray
  • 3 candle holders
  • 1 pack of plastic spoons
  • 1 pack of plastic straws (should be a hit with her kids)
  • 2 wine openers
  • 3 wine stoppers
  • 1 huge sport drink reusable bottle
  • 1 reusable lunch bag
  • 1 small porcelain bowl
  • 4 long stemmed wine glasses
  • 1 tea box full of different teas
  • 1 plastic box (the one with an X I’m keeping for now.. I have an idea and if it works I’ll post about it 🙂 )
  • 1 cut board
  • 1 decorative glass bowl
  • 1 tiny shots glass
  • Bunch of rubber band (bracelets) – count as 1
  • 7 watches (she took a couple for her kids)
  • 18 Christmas decoration items
  • 1 box of decorative tiny apples (Christmas stuff)
  • 3 bean babies
  • 1 head light
  • 1 big storage box (all the stuff she took with her fit in the box – it’s that big 🙂 )
  • 1 pair of running shoes (another friend took earlier)
  • 2 medium size storage boxes (perfect for her kids toys)
  • 1 pair of jeans
  • 6 bras
  • 7 pantyhose
  • 3 pairs of socks
  • 2 short sleeved bicycle tops
  • 1 pair of shorts
  • 1 pair of dress pants
  • 1 t-shirt
  • 1 sleep shorts

12 books – another books instalment in my reading a book program

So there you have it – 108 items out-the-door for the month of December!

So does this bring me to the goal I set at the start of this year? Stay tuned and find out 😉

2014-12-30 10.54.48

2014-12-30 10.49.08

A Christmas shed!

Would you believe it, even during Christmas I managed to shed a few things 🙂

I had my family over for brunch on what we call second Christmas day, which I believe most of you call Boxing day?

I thought I could use this opportunity to have one of the girls try on a pair of shoes I’m getting rid of, as she is almost the same shoe size as me. Turns out I have no takes on the shoes, but I did, on a couple of the other thing 🙂

While we were upstairs looking at the shoes, the other girls came up, and you know how it is, when there are clothes, and a bunch of girls… 🙂

It’s so funny…my style is pretty much what we could call a kinda conservative/sporty/classic/casual style, I have no idea what that would be in fashion terms. But I’m the jeans, t-shirt, fleece kinda girl, that when I do dress up, I prefer pants and no frills tops and shirts. Dress or a skirt? Not something you see on me very often 🙂

The girls in my family on the other hand… love to dress up! And I have to admit, they really know how to put their outfits together, and they look gorgeous!

So you can see how I wouldn’t really expect that there would be much in my closet for them. But believe it or not! Out went a couple of shirts, a sweater, a cardigan and…

a really pretty vest, which I have no idea why I ever bought! It’s knitted in the back and rabbit skin in the front, I just couldn’t seem to ever make it work on me. My niece on the other hand; tall, skinny, beautiful, could have been a model if she wanted (she decided she wanted a degree more, which I applaud), always nicely put together and picky about what she wears. The vest, it looks great on her… so guess where it now resides.. absolutely not in my closet any more 🙂

In addition to clothing, I have a painting by Pia Myrvold, I had mentioned to my step-sister (as she is looking for art for her new house), that she decided to not only take a look at, but also to buy from me! How cools is that?

So there you have it – Christmas shed of thing out-the-door – 6 items

  • 2 shirts
  • 1 cardigan
  • 1 sweater
  • 1 vest
  • 1 painting

2014-12-28 11.23.14

 

Finally out of here…

Here we are!

Another pile of stuff going out-the-door!

Phew!

Remember I told you (both on October and November tally), about this pile of things I was holding for my neighbour to have a look? Well, we finally managed to find five minutes to look through it 🙂

This weekend she took of with a couple of boxes with stuff! She didn’t take it all (and I didn’t expect her to) but she still relieved me of probably about 95 percentage of my pile – and I’m ever so happy.

I have to admit, it’s just so much easier to “declutter” when there are people you know, who might find them useful.

And here it is, the stuff she took and a few things extra, my pile of stuff out-the-door – 90 items:

  • 2 magazine holders
  • 3 microwave items
  • 1 ice cube tray
  • 3 plastic boxes to store food in + a box of ziploc bags
  • 1 serving tray
  • 3 candle holders
  • 1 pack of plastic spoons
  • 1 pack of plastic straws (should be a hit with her kids)
  • 2 wine openers
  • 3 wine stoppers
  • 1 huge sport drink reusable bottle
  • 1 reusable lunch bag
  • 1 small porcelain bowl
  • 4 long stemmed wine glasses
  • 1 tea box full of different teas
  • 1 plastic box (the one with an X I’m keeping for now.. I have an idea and if it works I’ll post about it 🙂 )
  • 1 cut board
  • 1 decorative glass bowl
  • 1 tiny shots glass
  • Bunch of rubber band (bracelets) – count as 1
  • 7 watches (she took a couple for her kids)
  • 18 Christmas decoration items
  • 1 box of decorative tiny apples (Christmas stuff)
  • 3 bean babies
  • 1 head light
  • 1 big storage box (all the stuff she took with her fit in the box – it’s that big 🙂 )
  • 1 pair of running shoes (another friend took earlier)
  • 2 medium size storage boxes (perfect for her kids toys)

67 items 

And then there are some clothing I do not have a photo off, that also went out the-the-door this weekend:

  • 1 pair of jeans
  • 6 bras
  • 7 pantyhose
  • 3 pairs of socks
  • 2 short sleeved bicycle tops
  • 1 pair of shorts
  • 1 pair of dress pants
  • 1 t-shirt
  • 1 sleep shorts

Another 23 items 🙂 

2014-12-15 10.20.07 2014-12-15 10.24.51 2014-12-15 10.27.39

November tally!

I can’t believe where the month of November went. Seriously if feels like it’s only a few days since I wrote up October tally, and now November is over. I swear the days have wheels attached to them, because I sure can’t catch up.

So how did I do in the month of November (that I’m sure was only 8 days long 😉 ).

NOVEMBER TALLY of things “out-the-door” =  23 items!

  • 1 bead bracelet
  • 14 KLM Delft Blue Miniature houses – shipped to a friend in – A Tiny Village 2
  • 3 DVD’s – part of my Watch a movie program declutter project
  • 1 down duvet – that I am still debating if there is anything I can use it for, rather than “toss” it – any good ideas out there?

In addition, my neighbours mum popped over for a cup of tea, and while she was here it turns out that a couple of the clothing I was planning on getting rid of worked out for her. So she “ran” out of here with:

  • 1 pair of running shoes
  • 2 scarf’s
  • 1 pair of pink super soft socks, that just never fit me 😦

So there it is, 23 items out-the-door for the month of November.

P.S I’m still sitting on this pile of things, waiting for my neighbour to have a look, that I was hoping would count in November.. guess the pile is making it to the December tally instead!

2014-12-07 10.35.49

Another book installment!

Now that I’m not sitting her ogling the TV all the time, there has been time to get back to chipping away at my “reading myself out of my bookshelf” task.

And here it is – another 12 books out-the-door 🙂

2014-12-04 10.01.15

Waterlogged?

When I lived in the US a few years back, I had this small water feature sitting on my kitchen bench. Just a little something to give me the sound of a small trickle of water.

When I moved back to Norway, I did install it, but a couple of months into using it here, the bowl started to leak, and I never really found another bowl I like to use the water feature with.. so I packed it away.

And now that I have a decent outdoor water feature.. I see no reason to keep this in my closet. So out-the-door it goes!

I can’t really count this item, as it got counted in my July? toss, I obviously just didn’t get it out-the-door after all, hmmm 😦

2014-01-11 11.21.04

You’ve covered me for years!

I’m sorry to say, but my old goose down duvet has to go. There is a ridiculous amount of down and feathers that are flying around every time I change the duvet cover. And I have to admit, it’s getting a bit tedious having to vacuum “half the house” just because I want a clean bed 😉

In Norway the normal bedding exists of a fitted sheet that we sleep on, a down/feather or synthetic duvet, covered with a duvet cover, that we sleep under and a couple of pillows.

It’s not the norm like I’ve seen in US, to just sleep under a thin sheet, or sleep under a sheet that’s between us and the duvet/blanket. Because I don’t use that extra sheet, I change the duvet covers pretty often. So you can see how flying down/feathers is becoming a problem.

I’ve had my duvet for years, so it’s not really all that surprising it’s throwing in the towel. Thankfully I have an extra duvet laying around so I don’t need to go and buy another one (which is really good as they are expensive over here, if you want a decent one).

My dear duvet!

Today I have to say goodbye 😦 I’m sad to see our parting ways, because you have served me well all these years.

You have always been there!

To keep me nice and warm on chilly nights. You have been around for sad days and sick days, allowing me to hide under the covers. You’ve been around for snuggle days, reading or watching tv in my living room. You’ve even been outside with me once or twice, on beautiful winter days just sitting enjoying the weather.

You’ve seen me at my best and my worst, and you’ve followed me from home to home.

Sadly this is the end of the road for you. I would have loved to reuse you for something, but I’m not sure what that would be right now. Refurbish you is to expensive, compared to replacements. And you know that your goose down brother, who is “hanging” around in my closet, is chopping at the bits to come out to play.

So long, my trusted friend!