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
20140105-121946.jpg

Out the door pile
20140105-121632.jpg

The keep box
20140105-122059.jpg

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
20140104-191050.jpg

What I’m left with
20140104-191100.jpg

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 🙂

image

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)
20140101-191503.jpg

HAPPY NEW YEAR

20131231-170909.jpg

To everyone out there, HAPPY NEW YEAR, have a wonderful 2014.

Hope your year is full of wonderful events, hugs from friends and family, great food, lots of travels, relaxed moments, fun parties, champagne and loads of time with all your loved ones.

My Sunday treat

Today I went to a garden center, it’s Sunday and in Norway nothing much is open on Sundays except some garden centers. And home I came with a couple of cheap orchids in my bag 🙂

I’ve just put them into some pretty glass holders that I already had at home and it’s amazing how little it takes for a house to look so much more cheerful.

I’ve always loved plants and flowers, and I’ve found that you don’t really need lots and lots of decoration to make a place look good, often it only takes a couple of plants or a group of cut flowers, throw in some candles and the house is decorated plenty.

Now I just need to remember this as I move into my declutter year of 2014 😉

To throw out the cluttered items that are stashed everywhere for decoration, and ad some plants and candles instead 😉

What you think?

20131229-154459.jpg20131229-154709.jpg
20131229-155250.jpg

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?

The declutter process

Where do we even begin

Having decided to attack the clutter monster, now what? There are hundred if not thousands of websites out there telling us what to do, so where do we even begin?

Well I believe the best way to go about this is to just start. Start somewhere, start anywhere, it doesn’t matter where, as long as you just start.

You know how they say to eat an elephant one bite at a time, I think this is the best way to tackle clutter as well, one piece at the time. Trying to do it all in one siting might just be to overwhelming.

Since we are all differ in our declutter approach, It doesn’t matter if you declutter in several purges or slow and steady, do whatever works best for you.

So any idea about how to go about it?

Start small: Take small steps ever day. You don’t have to get rid of all your stuff to start this challenge.

Have patience: Decluttering is a process, so don’t beat yourself up if you are having a hard time decluttering.

Realize the burden of stuff: Too much stuff is a burden. You spend hours and hours of stepping over it, cleaning it, repairing it, organizing it and moving it. Being clutter free means you have to spend less time on it, and get more time on family, friends and activities you love.

My 2014 plan

So this is my plan, starting January 1st 2014 – lose on an average at least one item a day all through 2014 – yep that’s at least 365 items.

This means toss, recycle, donate or sell the item(s).

And to make myself accountable I will post something about my decluttered items on this blog.

Have I ever tried something like this before. Nope, absolutely not. But hey, there is always a first for everything 😉 (and I already know what my first item will be… I just won’t tell you until January 1st 😉 )…