I haven’t ever heard about a home that doesn’t have a junk drawer or two, and this house is no exception 😉 I have more than one…
Today’s task; declutter my living room catch all.
Here it is in all it’s glory – yeah, I know, not pretty!
FROM THIS
Well.. I might as well get on with it – hang in there, folks – I’m going in!
(a hours or so later..)
All done. Oh, that’s looking a little better now, isn’t it?
TO THIS
MINUS ALL OF THIS:
2 picture frames
1 diploma from Microsoft
1 calculator
1 remote control
1 notebook
1 lanyard
1 US simcard
1 Micro memory card
6 pens
1 pink marker
2 cd covers
5 umbraco’s
Bunch of paper to toss – count as 2
Bunch of paper to shred – count as 2
1 empty box
7 unused Valentines cards
8 envelopes
15 Ziploc’s and small plastic bags in assorted sizes
2 packs of memo cards for old diarys
10 plastic items
2 journal covers
1 reusable net
1 box of cool looking paper clips – which are horrible to use
(goes to show, just because they are cool don’t mean they are practical)
2 boxes of push pins – leftover from my office days
Bits and pieces – count as 2
=
78 items out-the-door!
7 Day tally = 360
Hey! Didn’t I just pass my goal? Nice!
Still have 3 days to go. I wonder what number I’ll end up with 😉
Since I started my blog, I have been slowly downsizing my closet. (it seems to be the thing we women do 😉 )
I’ve probably gotten rid of about 50% or so, since I started my declutter thing on this blog in 2014.
Since I left the workforce (soon to be two years ago – my how times fly), I don’t have to dress up for meetings or change from work stuff to everyday wear everyday. These days, I pretty much live in the same type of outfits all the time – jeans, t-shirt and a sweater (weather depending).
Since I changed my diet (for health reasons) last year, I lost about 15 kilos or so. It took quite a while before my weight stabilized, and since it was fluctuating quite a bit there for a while, I only got new pieces of clothing when I absolutely needed something new that fit me (it’s not that fun walking around in clothing that is way, way to big).
I’ve stabilized now.
It’s hard though, to downsize, as I have clothing that are good quality for those special occasion like party’s, Christmas and other meet ups. Even though I only use about 30-40% of my closet on my daily outfits (remember – jeans and t-shirt kinda girl). I still need to keep the other type of outfits around.
Since I happen to be kinda picky about what I wear (even when it’s only jeans and t-shirts), I’m having a hard time finding suitable replacements that fit my current size. Which unfortunately means, I’m still hanging on to a few items to many of my old stuff.
I have not given up hope that I one day will have this beautifully curated minimalist wardrobe… and the only way I’m going to get there is to forever chip away at it.
Which brings me to today’s declutter write-up!
I have found a few more closet items, to say good buy to 😉
8 t-shirts
2 workout tops
3 fleeze
sweatpants
longjohn
2 pars of thick socks
2 sleepwear
2 caps
1 wool jacket
1 sweather
bandana
1 pair of flipflops
1 pair of boots
= 26 items out-the-door!
We are at day 2 of my 7 day thing, and today is a pretty easy one.
Earlier this year, I got quite a few used interior magazines for free (which is great, since I have stopped buying my own). I’ve enjoyed reading them, but I’m all done, and I’m ready for them to leave the house.
I piled them all into one of those banana crates/boxes – and looking at the half filled box, I decided I was going to fill it up! (a girl gotta challenge herself 😉 )
So I’ve been adding all sorts to the pile; old magazines, new magazines, manuals, catalogs, travel brochures and my tiny little nemesis – articles I have ripped out of magazines/newspapers etc to keep. I have written about this habit before.
Guess what, I have filled the banana box (woohoo), and there are hardly any magazines left in the house, with the exceptions of a few keepers for a rainy day 😉
I still have a stack of manuals, but they all belong to items I own. So I guess they’ll be sticking around a little bit longer!
I just tallied it all up, and here are the stats:
113 magazines, manuals, travel brochures and catalogs
114 individual articles I have torn out to keep
I can’t believe how fast this year has gone, November is behind us and we are already a few days into December.
This is the time where the holiday celebrations are soon upon us, and we are busy preparing for them. And most likely the last thing on our minds are working on our declutter endeavors (beside the stuff we need to do to prepare the house for the holidays).
Well not this girl! I’ve decided I need to have one more go at it before Christmas 😉 I need to get some stuff outa here!
So I’m committing to a 7 day declutter run!
Over the next 7 days (starting tomorrow) I will declutter 343 items!
Why 343 you ask?
Well I need a goal, and I started thinking – 7 items pr day for 7 days, but hey, that would only amount to 49 items out the door… So I though 49 items “a day” would be a much better goal 😉
Which brings us to the 343, as 7 x 7 x 7 = 343 items out the door!
Oh yeah, and just to up the ante, I’ll be throwing one extra task into the mix!
As most of you know, I’ve been really bad at keeping up on the blog this year. And I figured – since I’m committing to 7 days of decluttering, why not commit to do a daily write up of the items leaving the house as well? Then maybe I can get back into the groove of things!
So there you have it – a double goal!
7 days – 343 items out the door – 7 articles on the blog!
It’s been a while… I know, one of these days you’ll get sick of hearing me say this, I’m sure.
With my head playing up like it’s been doing the last few months, I’ve learned that I have to pace myself when doing things.
Even though you haven’t heard from me in a while, it doesn’t mean that B and I haven’t been up to anything 😉
We have been a little busy actually! Mostly doing other people’s stuff.
This is a quick recap of what we have been up to since you heard from me last:
I’ve been dealing with insurance stuff for my step-mum, after a young man hit her car and ran away without leaving a note (thankfully there was a witness).
We have been flexing our handyman skills at a friends place, installing a couple of ceiling lamps, changing door handles and oiling up a couple of doors and swapping out some reeeaaaallly rusted outdoor ventilation covers.
We have helped my neighbor with moving some clothing cabinets, installing a couple of bunk-beds and a desk. Mostly just helped her set up her daughters room so it’s easier for them to share a room and still have a private corner.
My stepmom wants heated floor in her condominium. This task has turned out to be a bit more work than we though.. and deserves a blog-post of it’s own 😉
I’ve been dealing with a lot of admin stuff related to the row of townhouses I belong to (which is still an ongoing task, not quite settled, yet)
Have we done anything for us?
Well yes, as a matter of fact… we have.
You might remember from earlier this spring that we built a patio at a friends house? From that job there was some leftover decking material.
I’ve had a couple of plans for those leftovers, among them I wanted to build a “big” planter/storage box. So about a week ago, we kinda finished that box 🙂 It’s on wheels so it’s easy to move around (it would be impossible without wheels, as it’s large enough that you would need three super strong men to move it, if it is ever filled with soil and plants). I will be using it as a combination planting table and storage box for material, like pots, mulch, sand etc.
As I’m planning on using it as a storage box and as a planting table, I need to add a lid at some stage. A lid with not only keep everything inside dry, but also give me a surface to use as a table. I haven’t quite figured out what I want make the lid from yet. I’m thinking either treated plywood, or maybe try to make a lid with the leftover decking. When it’s done I’ll show you, but for now you can see how the box looks today. I’m really happy with how it turned out 😉
So what about decluttering?
You would think that with all the stuff going on for everyone else, that I took a declutter break! And in a way you would be right 😉
My decluttering has been a little on and off since you last heard from me. A little here, a little there….
Some of it has made it out of the house.. I’ve got pictures 😉
But some are still hanging around in my catch-all room (guestroom) – gotta take pictures for the blog and all, you know 😉
So what has actually made it out of the house?
1 concrete side-table – sold today
I box filled with decking cutoffs
49 old no longer usable decking boards
(the rest of the stuff in the car is old flooring from step mums place.. so that’s not mine to count 😉 )
21 books
Out-the-door = 72 items
Which brings my grand total for 2017 to 1017 🙂
Guess this is it, for now! You should be all caught up.. kinda 😉 So hang tight.. and I’ll see you soon!
How on earth could I have known, when I started my 21 day challenge in January, that it would take me 8 months to kick this “challenge” out of the park. It’s quite ridiculously, how this has gone on and on and on… 😉
But happily.. it’s all over, finally!!! And since I’m sticking to my current 3 day write-ups, you get all the dirt in one go!
As I have mentioned a few times before, I tend to use my guest room as my catch all when I declutter.
This is just a small portion to show how crazy it can get.A mess, I know, why don’t I clean it up for you, a little 😉
Day 19 – Stuff,
I used to have an tiny apartment/condominium in town before I moved out to where I am now, and in my bedroom I had a wall decorated with odd items from around the world.
Since I moved to my current home, I haven’t kept up my wall of weird. And today I’m sending off among other things, two of the last reminiscences of that wall, my wooden masks.
2 wooden masks (I’ve kept my favorite one.. you never know, I might start another wall 😉 )
1 humidifier – it kept spitting water all over my floor 😦
1 wine bottle cooler
1 bathroom rug
1 green golf mat (for indoor practice)
3 candles
1 silver plate
= 10 items
Day 20 – stuff,
It’s funny what pops up when you go through your stuff, this all… serves no purpose anymore.
A couple of things like the cards and the dog show medals, are sentimental items. But it’s time. I took a picture of the medals and I have cards that means more to me from the same people.
The rest? That’s just junk… now!
Some cards, count as 5
1 toiletry bag
1 box of letters and numbers for crafts
1 green box
3 dog show medals
1 clipboard
Bunch of random junk, count as 20
8 sets of post-it notes
Bunch of random papers, count as 5
1 bag of shower curtain holders
3 plastic bottles
1 box of clothing wax
3 packs of hooks
1 Vin’in bag (when you want to travel with bottles)
1 pouch of rocks
1 bottle of hairspray
1 alarm clock
1 pump
Bunch of plastic, count as 3
Medical and sport items, count as 7
2 storage nets
= 70 items
Day 21 – and more stuff 😉
And as we weren’t’ done with random stuff… here is some more for you 😉
20 hangers
2 – 3D puzzles (really cool puzzles that I have done several times over the last 25 years)
3 chargers (2 broken, one with UK plug)
1 lantern for candles
1 blue box
1 very worn out kitchen aid blender (I had to get a new one)
2 pictures with frame
= 30 items
I’m sure there were stuff I missed counting in the chaos, and the numbers should really be more, but I’m sticking with this for my last three days!
Day 19, 20 and 21 = 110 items
Which brings my new grand total for 2017 to 945 🙂
PS… there are actually more that has gone out the house, but (in the spirit of keeping it short and sweet) that will have to wait for another day.
Oh, yeah.. and one of my TV channels are having a Star Trek movie run every night this week, and today’s is starting in a few minutes… I’m sure you all understand… 😉
I’m rolling up the last few days of my 21 day declutter challenge, I kinda liked the three day write-up so here is part two 😉
Day 16 – Flower decoration
I used to have a habit of buying single flowers like a single rose or a tulip or two, and I would take that single flower and put it in a vase with a little bit of decoration. To bling it up, so to speak.
Over the years I’ve gotten out of this habit for all sorts of reasons, and I’ve been working on downsizing my flower decorating box since I started this blog. There really isn’t a good reason why I should hold on to it all.
As with everything else, a little here a little there, and eventually I’ll get there and today another handful is ready to leave the house.
Flower decoration pieces
Bunch of ribbons of silver tread – count as 3 as there are three different types of threads
2 rolls of pink and green tread
I bag of small rock
5 small pink/purple bulbs??
= 11 items
Day 17 – Golf and…
I haven’t been on the golf course (to play) for almost 8 years now. I didn’t play much when I was in the US and within a year from coming home from Houston my health issues started. You might say I have kinda quit the whole thing. Even so… I’m not quite ready to get rid of my golf clubs (it’s a mental thing.. I’m not ready to give up the idea I one day will be able to get back to swinging some clubs) but hoarding a bunch off goofballs .. well that’s just silly now.
These last few years, I have given away a lot of golf balls to friends (I had a drawer full). But I think it’s time to use that drawer for something else. A week ago, I packed a few balls away in my golf bag, the rest, I took down to my local golf course and offered them to the first person I saw. And yep, you’ve guessed it, she took them all 🙂
20 packs + 5 single (65 golf balls) – count as 25
1 glove
1 golf cap
= 27 items
Day 18 – More sports items
In addition to the golf stuff, I went ahead and cleared that drawer all together of sport items (with the exception of my diving mask and snorkel) and here is the rest of the stuff from the picture above.
2 zumba whatchamacallit
1 bottle of diving glass defogger
1 rock climber talcum bag
1 tube lotion to be used on cycling shorts/pants (no chafing)
= 5 items
In the spirit of keeping this short and simple, this is it for today!
Before I go… here is my yearly tally!
Day 16, 17 and 18 = 43 items, which brings my new grand total for 2017 to 835
We are back to my 21 day declutter challenge…. about time you will say.. and I do agree 😉 Every time I have found a bit of energy the last week or so, I have gone on very tiny declutter sprees around the house. As usual I have been piling the stuff in my guestroom, to be arranged and photoed at some future date.
Well today is as good a day as any, it’s time to get on with it!
DAY 13 – Outdoor storage room attached to house.. (not a garage because I don’t have one)
Since I don’t have a garage, everything goes into my tiny storage room. It’s the place I store my car tires, paint, bike, roller-blades, garden tools, plant tools, some outdoor furniture, all my electrical and hand tools and all the other nuts and bolts you need when you have a home and are essentially a “guy” when it comes to tools 😉
And like any other “garage”, my storage/shed gets full.. and I have to clear a little out, so I at least can get into the space without tripping over buckets (which I do a lot) 😉
Here’s the dirt on whats leaving this time! 2 tanks – for my old gas grill that I don’t have anymore – I gave these to a friend – sorry no picture
1 kitchen cabinet door (cut into three pieces – recycle plant swap house wouldn’t take it, and it only fit the bins in pieces)
2 foam boxes
1 battery drill (more or less broken, thankfully I have more 😉 )
10 tins of paint and paint related items
1 empty fertilizer bucket
8 pieces of steel from my old kitchen counter edge
= 25 items
Day 14 – Bathroom
I have never been one to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, as I’m pretty much a no frills person regarding products I use. The last couple of years I mostly blend my own oils, use makeup only once or twice a year, and don’t use much in the name of soaps, shampoos and conditioners. I’ve been downsizing my bathroom stuff quite a bit, but still there are things that linger (for some reason or another)…
28 items of stuff – not pictured
4 bottles with various lotions
1 small perfume bottle
2 tins of lip and hair balm
1 box of pure moist contact lens solution
1 lip balm
1 nail clipper
1 tube cleanser
1 tube moisturizer
1 box of makeup
3 random items
= 44 items
Day 15 – Kitchen
So here we re again with the kitchen! I don’t know what it is about kitchens, but items seem to accumulate, regardless of how often you declutter the space. I have no number for how many times I’ve gone through this place, and there are still more stuff that pops out of the woodwork! Strange that, lol
3 bottles
5 glass containers
1 knife
2 pray ops… spray bottles
Random stuff – count as 5
= 16 items
I think this concludes today’s post!
I’m trying to keep it short and sweet, and hopefully I’ll get the 21 days over and done with within the week 😉
But first before I go… gotta do the yearly tally!
Day 13, 14 and 15 = 85 items, which brings my grand total for 2017 to 792
It’s been one of those summers here on the west-coast of Norway…
I tend to wake up really really early in the morning, from the sun streaming in, and there is a moment I think “hey, this looks like it will be a gorgeous day”, before I doze of again for a while longer… and guess what.. when I wake up for real.. it’s pouring down 😦 or if it’s not raining the sun is nowhere to be found again for the rest of the day. There are parts of the west coast where I’m sure people are starting to develop fins between their toes it’s been that bad.
To escape it all, B and I took of for a few days of R&R, to the east coast of Norway, hoping the weather would be a notch better at that end of the “world”. And guess what! Turns out not only did we have a great trip, but the weather ended up waaaay better than the weathermen had predicted (so much so that I regretted not bringing shorts) 😉
It was a great little trip, we had a few days at a wellness center, visited my brother in Oslo, hung out with some friends we hadn’t seen for years in Holmestrand, took a detour to Tønsberg on our way back to Oslo. Where we stayed a couple of days, “touring” some travel shops we were curious about, and hung out with friends.
We have been back for a few days now, and I have to admit it’s tempting to get back on the road, as it’s still raining over here 😦
I’ve had a personal goal the last year or so of managing to travel with a 25 liter backpack only, and we are definitely getting there. On this trip we had one 25 liter backpack each + I had a personal item where we typically would put stuff like water, fruit, my iPad mini, a book and my journal.
The good thing… I could have managed without my personal item, if it wasn’t for the fact, that on this trip, I was bringing a bit of food, as I’m on a special diet at the moment, and I didn’t know if the places I was going would be able to accommodate that.
The bad thing.. my bag is still a bit on the heavy side 8-9 kg, but I’m working on that 😉
Big living – small luggage 🙂
One of the aspects of being on the road that I really like (now that we have managed to get down to a small bag each), is that we don’t have a lot of stuff with us. It’s easy to find everything (it’s not like there is a big bag for the stuff to hide in), and there is not a lot of stuff floating around. Turns out we don’t need much to have a good trip!
So why do we “need” so much when we are at home?
I understand that there are things we need at home that we don’t need when we travel, I get that. But even removing the essentials from the scenario, most of the time there are so much more in a persons home. Even if we account for all the “little” things we just want to keep around us because they bring us tremendous joy, more often that not there are a lot, a lot of items left that has absolutely no purpose at all.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this since we got home, as I find that my house feels kinda “cramped”. There is no reason why I should feel this way, as my house isn’t really cramped at all.
I believe the feeling comes from how easy and light it felt when all I had to “worry” about was what I carried with me, and that the stuff in the house isn’t quite as easy to pack up, should I want to.
This is what weights heavy on me right now, wanting to have it all decluttered down to a point where I could easily pack my stuff and relocate (not that I have any plans whatsoever to relocate anytime soon… then again.. we never know what’s around the next corner now, do we.. )
I’m not sure how to address this. I wonder if I would feel better about it, if I can just get some of my heaviest “tasks” out of the way?
My three nemesis’s… documents/papers, photos and computer files, are the ones that I’m struggling the most to ever get on top of.
The biggest reason is that, in my mind, I want quite a bit of the physical paper/photos etc all scanned to my computer, in addition I have oodles of files on several hard-drives that needs sorting, so I can get down to one hard-drive and one only.
Easy, peasy you say!! Well yes, except that the computer is the one thing I really should be staying away from, as it doesn’t take a lot of computer time before my headaches gets bad 😦 And herein lies my problem! The computer issue stops me in my track, and I get super frustrated because these three tasks is what needs to be done for me to feel like I’m where I like to be delutter wise.
There are times I wish a fairy would just magically take care of this for me… you know, poof, all sorted, scanned and neatly organized on my computer.
I lieu of a fairy.. anyone out there that has any ideas for how I can (once and for all) get on top of this? Anybody???
Yes? No?
Guess, I’ll just have to eat this particular elephant one tiny bit at a time.. even if I need a couple of years to get it done.
Unless any of you want to come visit and help me out, that is… I have wine 😉
It’s been a few days since my barbecue party. We had a great time, hanging out and catching up. Now, I don’t know what’s going on every time I decide to throw a barbecue party… this is the third party in as many years, and two out of three times it’s been raining. And we are not talking a small drizzle either!
The first time (on my 50th birthday) the heavens opened and there wasn’t a dry anything within miles of my house, seriously it was not pouring down, it was crashing down.
Then last year, it was actually somewhat decent, a bit cold, but at least not much rain. Which brings us to this year, and we’re back to rain again 😦 Happily we did get to grill most of the food before it all started, but we had no choice but to stay indoors most of the evening.
Now, if I was to be a betting woman (and I could be 😉 ), logic says that next years party will be outdoor (well a girl can hope can’t she? ) and I’m so looking forward to that.. and if I’m really gonna be optimistic, I’m hoping for shorts and flip flops 😉
Speaking of party and footwear!
A few years back, for my younger brothers big 40th birthday bash, I got my hands on some really pretty shoes. I saw them, fell in “love” and they not only worked perfectly with my outfit, they looked good on me 😉
Fast forward too today… the lovelies (I did mentioned I really really think they are pretty, yes?) have been sitting in my closet unused for some time. They are still just a lovely, I still kinda “love” them.. but… I just don’t use them.
I rarely use high heeled shoes to begin with, and the last few years (since I got sick) I’ve used high heels even less than before. High heels hurt my foot and I have found a really cute low heeled pair in almost the same color, that I now use instead, on those few occasions where pretty shoes are needed.
So I have decided that (regardless of how I much I like them and think they are pretty) that it is time for them to leave the premises. I could off course keep them for the sole purpose of admiring them, but that’s just silly now, isn’t it?
So here I am, on day 12 – sending a pair of shoes of to the salvation army, for someone else to use.. hopefully more than I have done!
We are at day 4 of my 7 day thing,
Minimalist Sometimes 