May tally!

Well there it is, the month of May is over, and it’s time for my monthly tally.

If I may say so, I think the month of May have gone pretty OK when it comes to declutter items. Even though I had a week completely under the weather, and a week in London with more sightseeing than decluttering 🙂

Let’s see what this month have amounted to on the declutter scale:

MAY TALLY of things “out-the-door” =  126 items 

53 – items when running amok in my guest room

  • 9 snuggles (stuffed animals and bean babies)
  • 1 empty computer box
  • 1 empty camera lens filter box
  • 1 PC “desk” to use in your lap
  • 5 clothes storage “bags”
  • 1 decorative plate
  • 6 space bags
  • 5 books
  • 3 small paper pamphlets
  • 6 Christmas decoration items
  • 1 hanging shoe holder
  • 2 eagle creek travel gear pieces
  • 1 camera bag
  • 1 dirty linen basket
  • 1 decorative “garland”
  • 1 gym “bag”
  • 1 space saver set
  • 1 travel journal
  • 2 bathroom mats
  • 1 shoulder strap for a bag I no longer have
  • 1 bag of sticky carpet felt (to use under carpets to make them not slide)
  • 1 hanging bag for cloths

54 – items from my closet cleanup

  • 8 shorts – surf shorts and regular shorts
  • 1 swim top
  • 1 bikini bottom
  • 2 knee length pants
  • 1 bicycle t-shirt
  • 1 pair of indoor “shoes”
  • 4 office shirts
  • 3 sweater
  • 1 knitted hat
  • 1 fleece buff
  • 2 regular buffs
  • 1 scarf Stockings – a bunch (counted as 1)
  • 1 par of socks
  • 3 of my dad’s ties
  • 12 unused unmentionables
  • 5 pairs of jeans – 2 worn, 3 unused (but sadly to small)
  • 1 pair of office pants
  • 1 top
  • 1 T-shirt
  • 1 knitted jacket
  • 1 pair of insoles
  • 1 belt

1 pair of very high heeled shoes 😉
16 paperbacks
1 wooden box – and
1 keg/barrel – my brothers – as posted from London

And that’s it. The out-the-door tally for MAY 🙂

Not to shabby…

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A shiny sink…

Walking downstairs this morning, I realised what a state my place is in. Since I got home from London almost a week ago, all I’ve done is work, sleep, eat and work in my yard.

I realised looking at the mess in my house, that what I’ve been doing the whole week is drop thing all over, in my “haste” of getting to other things. Rather than putting things away where it belong, right away (like a good girl should). And boy, in a small place it looks messy real quick!

Somehow, somewhere along the way, I’ve gotten out of my habit of doing a 5-10 minute room “rescue” every night, before I go to bed. So that I can wake up to a nice place the next morning.

Years, and I mean years ago (2003?), I came across Marla Cilley’s Flylady webpage. At that time it was a small webpage, helping people get their house and “life” in order, with tools such as BabySteps of shining your sink, 27 fling boogies, 15 minute declutter, 5 minute room rescues, cleaning your house in zones (one zone a week), with daily focus areas. Today the webpage have expanded to include all sorts of resources, tips, hints, Flylady TV/radio and even a shop!

With the help of this webpage I got into pretty good habits of:

  • Shining my sink (short version; the concept is to wipe down the sink, every time its used. It stays cleaner, and it discourage you filling up the sink with “junk” + a shiny sink is a good start for a clean uncluttered space)
  • 5 minute room rescues – daily
  • Cleaning – using a 10 minute interval “rule” (using a timer)

Through the years, I’ve been on again, off again, this habit. And now it seems like I’ve fallen off the wagon one more time 😦 (with the exception of a a shiny bathroom sink).

So today, I’ll be putting my timer to work, 10 minute intervals, in every room 🙂 I bet you when it comes down to it, it will only take me an hour (or two), and then my house is back up to snuff 😉

 

NB. If you decide to sign up on Flylady, be selective of what you sign up for. It’s easy to get email overload! When I signed up in 2003 the choices was one mail a day or one a week! Somewhere along the way, they changed their system, and I got overwhelmed with several emails daily. After changing to the “Flylady Lite” list, I still got +/- 50 emails a month! So now I’m sadly unsubscribed.

 

PS. This was not really what I was planing to write about today (until that walk down the stairs), funny how that works! I was going to tell you about an outing in London! Oh, well, guess that will just have to wait… right now I’ve gotta find my timer 😉

 

Hand over!

Not much going on with our London trip today.

I spent the morning wrapping up a huge clock, that I bough here in London over Christmas, that I’m bringing back with me to Norway this trip. I’ll tell you all about it when I get home.

Today though, I’ve handed over a couple of my dad’s things to my brother. Items I’ve been holding for him at my house in Norway.

So what went “out-the-door” today:

1 wooden box, not sure where my dad got it, if it was from his travels or if it’s from grandfathers.

1 keg, made by our great grandfather or grandfather (not sure which).

The only way I could get the keg with me, was to break it down to its individual pieces.

Turns out 1 keg = 31 pieces as you can see from the pictures below…

My dearest brother said he won’t need any help to put it back together again, I wish him luck 😉

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Made it…

Made it! All the way to London (both me and the luggage) 🙂

After doing some tourist things like walking along the Thames river all day, we are now nicely tucked into my brothers house. Drinking coffee, tea and mocha (yes that’s me), all in pj’s watching an episode of “Dads”. It’s nice to relax at the end of a travel day 🙂

Thought I’d share some pictures (iPhone, so not the best quality) from the walk along the Thames today.

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London here I come…

It’s my mums birthday on Saturday, and since it’s a round number, it calls for an extra celebration 🙂

Since my brother and his wife live in London, and mum lives in the south of England, we have decided to meet up in London to celebrate mum this year.

And today I get on a plane… with luggage full of stuff 🙂

Luggage full of stuff? Just for a few days in London? Well, most of my luggage consist of things for my brother actually.

After my dad passed away last year, there have been a few things that have ended up in my house, as we have gone through dad’s stuff. And some of these items I’ve been holding for my brother.

Since I’m going to England for the celebration, I thought I might as well bring a couple of the items with me. And since these are literally things out-the-door 😉 I’ll be posting a little about the items as I hand them over.

Well, I better get out if here, I have a plane to catch. See you all in London 🙂

Under the weather…

I’ve been feeling a wee bit under the weather the last couple of weeks, and all of last week I even had to stay home from the office 😦

I’m not sure what bug bit me, but whatever it is, it’s an energy zapping bug! All I’ve done is pretty much sleep and hang out close to the couch (to sleep some more). Never mind being able to muster up any energy to spend time on the computer, which is why you haven’t heard from me for a while… I’m really sorry about that.

The only good thing coming out of having to stay home, is that I’ve just about, been reading every book in sight, actually, about a book a day! While looking for books to read, I’ve come across a few, that I’ve decided I won’t bother to read, before I get rid of them.

As I have not really been working on decluttering this last week, I guess I’ll just have to claim these reads, as my third instalment, in the “pile of books, out-the-door, read myself out of my bookshelf” task 😉

Not very exciting I know – but here it is – 16 books out-the-door (hopefully the only used book store left in town will take them 😉 )

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My one night stand…

Oh how I love these, but I just can’t…

Now, get you mind out of the gutter, this is not what you think 😉 This is all about a pair of shoes.. Yes that’s right.. A pair of shoes!

Huh?

Christmas party 2007, Houston, Texas. I got invited to my company’s Christmas party in Houston. I had been over there for 4 months, and when I packed for my couple of months trip to help out the IT department, I couldn’t have dreamed up needing to pack for a Christmas party…

So I went shopping 🙂 and found these gorgeous silver “oh my gosh how high heels” shoes, that I just had to have.

I have no idea what I was thinking… I’m a typical tomboy, you know, flat shoes, barefoot kinda girl, so what was I thinking buying such high heels? I should have known they would kill me just about 5 minutes into the party 😉

And I was right… it was a beautiful party, with lots of fun, and the shoes did look good on me 😉 But boy was I happy when I could peel them of my feet, getting in the car, going home that night 🙂

And you guessed it – they have never been used again. Their just as pretty as they ever was, I just can’t do it…

So it’s time to let go! I will never forget the party, and don’t need the shoes as a reminder. So out-the-door they go, my beautiful tortures silver party shoes 😉

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It’s closet time!!!

I had a run at my clothes cabinet a couple of weeks back, as a start on my big closet declutter task.

You know how they say we pretty much use only about 20% of our stuff, 80% if the time. I found this very true, when it comes to the clothing I use. I have some pieces that I use pretty much all the time, and some that are almost never (if ever) worn.

So I decided it was time to clean up shop, and continue what I started a couple of weeks ago. So that I could get the clothes out of here 🙂

I use my declutter system for closet clean ups, just like with everything else.

The rule is to be honest with yourself when deciding what to keep.

KEEP:

  • love and use
  • use daily, weekly, monthly or even maybe yearly
  • that they fit, and I look good in them

OUT THE DOOR:

  • have not used the last 12 months
  • will not use the next 12 months
  • no longer fits
  • do not look good on me – even if they fit
  • clothes I don’t feel comfortable in – even if they fit, or even look great on me. (Why would I wear clothes I’m not comfortable in? If I won’t actually use them – they gotta go)

NOT SURE – items I have a hard time making a quick decisions on for the following reasons:

  • might have a use for the next 3, 6 or 12 months – but I’m not really sure because they:
    • do fit, but will I actually use them? I might have an intention to use them this coming summer/fall/winter
    • might not be a perfect fit, maybe even a size down from where I am right now, but there is “intention” to fit into them within the next 6 months. Is that what we call wishful thinking? 😉

So how did I go about it?

I pulled ALL the content from my closet one category at the time: pants, office shirts, t-shirts, jackets and so on, you get the drift.

As I pulled them out, I sorted them into my Keep, Out-the-door and Not sure piles.

Everything in the Keep and Not sure pile, I tried on, to make sure they fit and looked good (or decent 😉 ) on me.

  • Everything that did not fit that bill, went into the out-the-door pile.
  • Not sure items, that survived this exercise, went into my allowance box.

From the out-the-door pile, I pulled out everything that I could give away or donate. I packed them nicely into some plastic bags (since the donate station I use, don’t take boxes), and went down to the donation station with them right away (just down the road).

A couple of tips:  

When you give away/donate, it’s always nice if you can place the items neatly into a box or a bag. Make sure they are clean, and that you have emptied the pockets first 🙂

Before putting anything back in the closet, it might be a good idea to dust, vacuum and even paint the walls if you want a fresh, new look 🙂

How did I do?

Closet TALLY 😉 =  54 items out-the-door

8 shorts – surf shorts and regular shorts
1 swim top
1 bikini bottom
2 knee length pants
1 bicycle t-shirt
1 pair of indoor “shoes”
4 office shirts
3 sweater
1 knitted hat
1 fleece buff
2 regular buffs
1 scarf Stockings – a bunch (counted as 1)
1 par of socks
3 of my dad’s ties
12 unused unmentionables
5 pairs of jeans – 2 worn, 3 unused (but sadly to small)
1 pair of office pants
1 top
1 T-shirt
1 knitted jacket
1 pair of insoles
1 belt

And believe it or not, I still have stuff left in my closet, that I can get rid off! How about them apples?

Oh well, that’s for another day. Now? I think I deserve a coffee mocha 😉

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Running amok in my guest room

This weekend I had a small kick of energy (or whatever you want to call it 😉 ) – and I went a little crazy, roaming through some of the cabinets in my guest room, pulling everything out, looking for all those odds and ends that are just “hanging around”, never really being used.

And guess what – I ended up with quite a pile 🙂 And here is the result!

Weekend TALLY of things “out-the-door” =  53 items

  • 9 snuggles (stuffed animals and bean babies)
  • 1 empty computer box
  • 1 empty camera lens filter box
  • 1 PC “desk” to use in your lap
  • 5 clothes storage “bags”
  • 1 decorative plate
  • 6 space bags
  • 5 books
  • 3 small paper pamphlets
  • 6 Christmas decoration items
  • 1 hanging shoe holder
  • 2 eagle creek travel gear pieces
  • 1 camera bag
  • 1 dirty linen basket
  • 1 decorative “garland”
  • 1 gym “bag”
  • 1 space saver set
  • 1 travel journal
  • 2 bathroom mats
  • 1 shoulder strap for a bag I no longer have
  • 1 bag of sticky carpet felt (to use under carpets to make them not slide)
  • 1 hanging bag for cloths

+ one pen that I found out was leaking like a sieve, when I pulled it out to add up my item manually.. now my hands looks like there has been a war going on between me and my pen 😦  Seriously, I look a mess….

As you can see – I’m still chugging along getting rid of things 🙂

So what’s next? Hmmmmm, closet maybe?

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April tally!

Month four! Sorry it’s a bit late, I almost forgot about it for a second, but here it is 😉

Let’s see, what I have I been able to shed this month?

APRIL TALLY of things “out-the-door” =  58 items and about 4500 emails

  • PC nicknack’s – I forgot to count out the items when I did this job, but what I can see from the picture I got rid off:
    • 2 mouse
    • 1 laptop hard-drive
    • 1 wireless adapter
    • 7 converters (Europe to US and the other way around) (count as 1)
    • 1 Bluetooth headset
    • 1 Apple charger station
    • 1 FM radio sender
    • Bunch of USB, firewire cables (count as 1)
    • Bunch of other stuff I have no idea what was (count as 1)
  • 2 bundles of sticks
  • 18 books
  • 1 bottle of port 😉
  • 1 compact camera with chargers, extra batteries ++
  • 1 handbag
  • 8 clear plastic boxes
  • 1 old broken cooking thermometer
  • 15 vases and other flower related stuff
  • 1 screwdriver set
  • Around 4500 emails at my work mailbox (still working on the 5000 I promised)

So what else have I’ve been up to? Not much, except for enjoying the heck out of spring 😉 And I’ve done a major patio overhaul.

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