21:13-15 Let’s get on with it, shall we?

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

🙂

21:12 – Oh, my lovelies!

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!

One cute pair of shoes going out-the-door!

Which brings my grand total for 2017 to 707

21:11 – A little bit of this, a little bit of that!

It looks like the consensus was for me to forge ahead with my 21 day declutter challenge, so here we are at day 11 🙂

Thursday I’m kicking off my now yearly barbecue party (this is the second year), so guess where my time is going these days?

Yep! I’m knee deep in making my garden look good, cleaning and clearing it up. I’m also borrowing an extra table, some chairs and an extra grill from a friend, so I’ve picked that up. Today I’ve been trying to make the house look decent, just in case it’s raining and we have to stay inside. And tomorrow agenda is to get all the food shopping out of the way.

So you can see, why, there is not a lot of decluttering going on right at this moment…

Even so.. I had a small break from my party focus earlier today, and spent it pulling some random junk out of a couple of drawers.

Rather than leave the stuff in my guestroom (which is what I would normally do, until I had a bigger pile to write about on my blog) I’m just gonna do a quick write-up and then get the junk out of here…

Can’t have any of my guest trip over these ~~huge~~ (super, super) tiny piles, now.. can I?

So here we are.. three tiny piles… of items going out-the-door!

Bunch of Christmas wrapping items
Sets of Sheets, ribbons, tags, more tags, wrapping paper,gift bag +++
28 items

Flower decoration pieces
2 packs of beeds, 3 – not sure what they are called, but they fasten decorations to a plate,
12 ribbons of silver tread, gold tread, beeds on a string, more strings of stuff…
17 items

Other random stuff
2 pens, 3 sets of secret soles for high heel shoes, 1 small box, 1 reflex
6 items

Today’s total = 51 itsy bitsy items!

My grand total before the hiatus, was 655. Today’s number brings it all to 706 for the year!

OK! So it’s not really a lot of stuff, I get that! And it’s not really anything that shows up, decluttered storage wise… I get that too. But! It is a tiny start on getting back into the declutter mode… and everyone needs to start somewhere! 😉

Spring project – One big wooden deck!

B and I have been a couple of busy bees lately (actually, since we came home from England, helping mum out). We’ve been working away at building a 540 square feet (about 50 square meter) wooden deck.

Yep, you heard right.. a itzy bitzy 540 square feet deck… just kidding, in our world this is a big deck!

Last fall, we visited a former colleague of mine, and she happened to mention she’s been wanting (for quite a while now) to extend her current deck, with about 150 – 170 square feet.

We thought that sounded like a fun little spring project, so we kinda threw it out there – “Hey.. we can help you with that!” 🙂

Little did we know at that time, that this tiny little project would take on a life of it own (which I guess things have a habit to do), and morph into a 540 square feet project instead.

That’s a heck of a change, you say, and you would be right 😉

As the story goes, there was a good reason though. There was a bit of discussion on how to add the extension to the old deck, and make it look half decent (the old part was close to 40 years old). So we all decided that, for the deck to look it’s best, we would remove the old deck boards and put down brand new ones. And presto, now we are talking 540.

Turns out it was a good decision, as a few of the old deck boards were in bad shape (some even rotten). It also gave us the opportunity to strengthen the old wooden frame (which had some flaws from earlier builds), and replace areas that had had a little to much wear and tear.

So there you have it… This is where our time has been going the last few weeks (which is why you haven’t seen me on the bloggosphere much).

The project has taken a little while, but thankfully my friend haven’t minded this at all, she’s been happy with any progress we had… I’m super thankful for this, as there was never any pressure on us, and it worked perfectly with me and my need to pace myself (due to my health issues). I wish everyone was as patient as this. 🙂

But slow going or no. Guess what? We are now officially done, new deck, new stairs and everything. And boy does it look good if I say so myself 🙂

Why don’t you take a look for yourself 😉

OLD DECK

ALL TORN UP

BUILDING THE FRAME ADDITION

DECK BOARDS GOING IN

WOOHOO! ALL DONE 🙂

What do you think…? Approved?

Can’t wait to see some flowers on it later this summer… I’m sure we can sneak a visit to check it out, when she has it all decked out (see what I did there 😉 ) with furniture and plants.

21:10 – Slides from heaven?

It’s day ten of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

When my dad passed away almost 4 years ago, he left behind a few things, among them a couple of boxes with slides, photos, letters, videos and audio tapes.

When he was a young man, my dad used to work on a ship. I was only a little girl, but I remembered he would travel to all sorts of “strange” places like Africa, Australia, Asia… I think he told me once it was easier for him to count the countries he had not been to than it was to count the places he had been.

When he was out and about, he would take pictures, video and even send messages home by reel-to-reel audio tape.

Quite a few of the pictures he took, seems to have been taken in the 60’s, especially around the time, he worked on, what I think was, a survey ship.

I’ve been looking trough these boxes now and then, even gotten rid of a piece here or there… but… it’s time to actually hit these boxes and do something with what’s in them.

Quite a while back, I went through all of the slides, and picked out the ones I thought was worth keeping. I’ll be scanning the keepers, so that I have them as files, should anyone ever want any of them. After the scanning I will most likely discard the originals as I have to borrow equipment to be able to look at them. If the result of the scans are OK, I might make a mini album of the best ones later on.

When I looked through them, I sorted them into discard and keep, but… I decided that my brother should really have a look at them, before the non keepers are thrown away.

You see, I loved looking back at the slides my dad took, and I thought my brother would love it too. Even though some of them were almost beyond recognition as they where pretty ruined, it still gave us a look into a life my dad had had. A life that we know very little about, as I was just a toddler, and my brother wasn’t even on the horizon at that time.

Last time my brother visited, we had a little stroll through history, and decided together which ones we want to keep for us to scan 🙂

I will bring them in for scanning or do the scanning myself sometime this year, but for now at least… I can get rid of the ones that are not worth keeping.

It was never a big collection (actually it was pretty small) even so, there are 373 slides going out the doors today (we are keeping about 220).

There was a bit of a debate on how I should count these as items out-the-door, 1 slide as 1 item? 5 slides as 1 item? or 10 slides as 1 item.

I’ll be doing regular photos soon, and to me it seems like 10 photos = 1 items is a ratio I’ll be happy with, and as slides are photos, it makes sense to me that 10 slides = 1 item 😉

Throw in 5 empty slide boxes (not counting the boxes the slides are in) and we have 5 boxes + 37 items (373 slides) =

42 items going out-the-door!

Which brings my new grand total to 655 🙂

21:09 – Another closet purge!

It’s day nine of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

Over the last three or four years I’ve been chipping away at my closet.. and I’m finally making some headway (according to where I want my closet to be).

Now, mind you! My closet have never been particular huge. How can I say this? Well, every time I have found myself looking at what my friends have in their closets, mine has been positively “minimal” (sort off).

Even so, ever since I returned from Houston (where I had amassed a brand new wardrobe in addition to the one I had in Norway) I’ve felt the need to downsize my closet.

I’ve been reducing clothing and shoes as I’ve moved along this minimalist journey, and I am slowly getting to where I think I will be happy to leave my closet alone.. the only “problem”… my level of minimalism seem to change as I move further along on my minimalist path 😉

I think this is something a lot of you are familiar with, as we declutter the spaces around us (physically and mentally), we seem to shift the levels of where we would like to get to.

Now, I do not aspire to become a minimalist with less than a 100 things (well secretly I might be 😉 ), but I do aspire to get to a level, where there is a good flow of energy around me, where I could easily move house without getting totally stressed, where I could just pack a bag and never look back, because I would have the most important things with me and the things that didn’t fit in a bag, could easily be taken care off by someone else.

But I digress, lets get back to my latest wardrobe purge, a purge that have now brought my wardrobe down to a total of 263 items, which includes everything clothing and shoe related (even things like flip-flops, caps, buffs, bike and golf gloves, garden attire, etc).

I know.. still quite a bit, and I can see another purge in the horizon.. but for right now… hey I’m below 300 pieces, and that was a goal in itself 😉

And what’s leaving the house? Let’s see now…

1 Dress
8 t-shirts
2 long sleeved t-shirts
2 pants
1 top
3 bras
1 scarf
1 belt
1 pair of flip-flops
1 pair of gym shorts
1 buff
3 pairs of socks
1 bikini top
1 bikini bottom
5 stockings
3 leggings
1 robe
3 long armed shirts
1 pair of dress pants
1 cardigan
1 blazer
1 outdoor jacket
=

That’s 43 items out-the-door!

Which brings me to the grand total of = 613 so far this year.

PS. I just tallied up all the clothing and shoes I have gotten rid off since I started my “official” deluttering in 2015, and guess what, including this purge, I have more than halved my wardrobe (all of 315 items of clothing and 19 pairs of shoes, have left these premises) 🙂

21:08 – The colors of a rainbow!

It’s day eight of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

It’s been a while (again) since my last post and there is a reason, why I’ve been on the quiet side.

My bestie from Houston (well US altogether) had to come over to Stavanger for a few days for work/meetings/seminar. He added a couple of days to his trip, to hang out with me 🙂

It turned out that there was quite a few people from our Houston office who was going to the same arrangement, so last week was filled with loads of fun, not only hanging out with my best friend but also hanging out with some of my former colleagues from my Houston days.

To clear up the house for the visit, I tucked all my small declutter projects back into cabinets and drawers, and now that I have the house for myself.. it’s time to bring them all back out in the open 😉

I decided to start with one easy task, hoping to get my total past the 500 mark.

Today it’s all about pens and paper!

I collected all my pens and coloring pencils in one “big” pile, and I found out I had a lot. A lot I no longer use, a lot of duplicates and some that was just broken… all in all.. I had way more than I could possible need.

Not only did I have loads of pens and pencils. Turns out I might be a tiny bit of a journal, post it note, paper pad and notebook hoarder as well!

So guess what? I decided to say bye, bye to a few on them.

Where are they going? Let’s just say, I have an awesome neighbor with two kids who will happily take them off my hand 😉

Here we are – 59 pens/pencils

and 24 notebook/post-it pads/journals

That’s 83 items leaving the house!

Which brings me to the grand total of = 570 (so far 😉 )

I know I’m taking my own sweet time on this challenge, and at this rate it might be summer before I’m done. But.. you know what? As long as the result is stuff leaving the premises, never to be seen again… I’m good with it taking a while 😉

And hey, you never know.. before I’m done with this challenge, I might be hitting a 1000 (a girl can wish, right) 😉

21:07 – Another random cull!

It’s day seven of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

Even though the flu, stopped me somewhat in the tracks, I have been collecting a few things here and there, that no longer serve a purpose.

It’s a random bunch of stuff, mostly pulled out from a cabinet her, a cabinet there and items just in general hanging around in the house. I haven’t been very organized about the culling, I’ve just been pulling things out as I have come across them, the last week or two.

You know how that is sometimes. You open a cabinet, drawer or just walk past something, and suddenly there is an item that catches your eye, that you wonder “What the heck am I holding on to this “junk” for”?

I have a box sitting in my guestroom, that I collect these random pieces in. I find that it’s easier to shed my stuff when I have this designated box. I’ll find an item, pop it into the box and presto, I no longer have to “think about” that particular item again.

I don’t have to remember that I’m supposed to get rid of it next time I declutter, I don’t have to make a decision on it over and over again (out of sight, out of mind), and since most of the time the declutter box sits around a few days, should I possible regret “tossing it” (which I never do) I do have a couple of days off grace 😉

And when the box is full… it “walks” right out of the house. And that’s what happened today 🙂

Here it is, the random stuff that just left the house!

1 serving tray
1 pack of CD/DVD envelopes
1 metal tin
1 space-bag
1 set of sports glasses with extra lenses
1 decorative martini glass
1 small tea box
1 sweeping tray
2 shelves for a fridge
2 jewelry boxes
=
12 items

1 extension pad
3 food storage items
1 lamp
1 music CD
6 software Cd’s
=
12 items

12 + 12 = 24 items going out-the-door 🙂

It’s day seven, and I thought “why not tally it all up so far”, so I did:

Day 1 = 22
Day 2 = 47
Day 3 = 9
Day 4 = 58
Day 5 = 147
Day 6 = 180
Day 7 = 24

Total so far = 487

Hey, that’s almost 500!!! I think I can get to that.. no problem 🙂

21:06 – Shredding like a Looney Tune!

It’s day six of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

Whilst I’ve been sitting here, the last couple of weeks, feeling sorry for myself (that is what you do when you have the flu, isn’t it?) I have at least been a tiny bit useful with my time.

I have been going through some of my paper monster. You might remember I started a paper scan/purge task in December, well.. rather I tried, doing a scan/purge run, and I flunked miserably since I got hit with bad migraines.

Well.. during this flu (which is getting much better now, thank you) I decided to do some more paper purging (scanning I’m leaving for later), and I’ve been shredding papers like a looney tune.

I have a portable shredder that I use with a specific trash bin, because they fit together like gloves. I can typically shred around 200-250 pieces of paper before the bin is full. Food store receipts? Well then we are talking probably 700-800.

Why am I telling you this? It’s because as part of my 21 declutter challenge, I’m counting items, and I have decided that one full bin equals 10 items out-the-door.

So how did I do?

Well, let’s see… the last week or so, I’ve shredded 8 overfilled bins, resulting in

3 big bags of shredded paper leaving the house!

With my fancy bin counting this makes

180 ITEMS OUT-THE-DOOR 🙂

Why do I shred my papers?

It’s because I value my privacy. Any information with personal details, I just shred by default.

It’s a good habit to have, because then I don’t have to worry to much about people finding a lot of details about me in the trash.

I’m hoping this will keep me safe from identity theft and such.

Am I done yet? Heck no.. I still have loads of paper to go through.. this was just shredding round number 1.

OK then… guess I should get back to the shredder then, for round 2…

21:05 – Stuff, stuff and more stuff!

It’s day five of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

You’ve been wondering if I’ve fallen of the face of the earth?

Naah! I’m still hanging around, and I have finally found my voice. No, no, I’m not talking writing voice, I’m talking voice voice 😉

Believe me, it’s been a few fun days, me squeaking like a new born baby bird. Truth be told, I’m sure the bird would have one up on me… sounding waaaay better 😉

This flu is being a stubborn one, and even though I can talk now without people rolling over laughing, I’m not out of the woods quite yet. But, I’m better, and better means I’m getting restless, restless to get back to my decluttering tasks 🙂

So I’m back, chipping away at it…. again!

THE RESULT?
102 Computer/phone related items

AND

47 DVD/craft related items

149 ITEMS OUT-THE-DOOR 🙂

Yayyy… go me!

That brings me past my goal of 231, and I’m “only” 5 days in! Yeah.. that’s a stretch, I know.. but what can I say? I am after all following MY rules of this particular 21 day challenge 😉

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