Tag: 365 items

I can see clearly now

I opened a drawer this morning, can’t quite remember what I was looking for, but there, all by their lonesome a couple of old glasses looked up at me….

Poor things, after I got my new fancy and adjusted glasses they had gone into oblivion, no longer needed and forgotten in the dark.

Well today they are back out, dusted and cleaned and ready to be donated to Vision for all an humanitarian organisation started by a group of opticians to help people in poor countries get glasses.

The link is to a Norwegian site, but I’m sure wherever you are there are similar organizations you can donate your old glasses to…. if you have any 😉

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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
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Out the door pile
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The keep box
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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
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What I’m left with
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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 🙂

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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)
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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 😉 )…