Double 7 – Sunday!

It’s Sunday and we are at day 7 of my 7 day thing.

This is what we woke up to this morning 😉

The rumor is it’s only going to last a couple of days, so rather than spend time on decluttering, I started my day shoveling snow. Gotta clear those pavements!

It’s been a beautiful day, we have been out and about, inhaled way too much fresh air, and I’m all tired now 😉

So I’m sure you’ll forgive me for making this declutter post short and sweet!

All I’ve got for you today, is a bunch of random stuff from around the house.

A few things from the bathroom, a few things from the kitchen. A little here… a little there… Before you know it, it actually adds up!

2 clothing covers
1 suitcase
1 handheld vacuum
1 pair of shoes
54 items of random stuff
=
59 items out-the-door!

My 7 day tally = 477

Guess i did it then. Goal 343 – result 477
I think I nailed it!

And my new grand total for 2017 = 1508

Not too shabby, if you ask me 😉

Later gator!

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

21:09 – 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) 🙂

21.21 – The final cull!

We’re at the final day of my 21 day declutter challenge.

I’m floored with how fast time have flown. It feels like the beginning of September was just a few days ago, and here we are on Sept 25th and at the end off this particular journey.

I set out on my 21 day challenge to try to get back into the decluttering mindset, little did I know that I would end up running amok in my own house. Not only have I passed my 21 days with flying color (I have surpassed the goal of 231 items, and I have decluttered every day) but I still have quite a few items just waiting to leave the house.

I thought it would be hard to find the 231 items, as I have decluttered quite a bit the last few years. But this time around my mind have been more determined than ever, and there are items that have survived all my other culling’s, that have left or will be leaving the house, this time around.

It seems like every time I do another round, I’m harder on my stuff, they have to have more qualities to survive my culling’s. And I’m noticing a trend of wanting less and less, left in my house.

It’s a good trend, as long as I just don’t get to the stage where I “throw the baby out with the bath water”, so to speak. Now.. I believe I can easily do another challenge or two, before I get to that particular stage 😉

So how have I done, on this last day of challenge?

Here we go….

?? items going out-the-door!

1 large floor vase
1 bench (to sit on or use as a table)
21 pieces of jewelry
3 watches
1 jewelry pouch
27

1 small ironing board
17 Eagle creek and other brands packing cubes/bags
14 pieces of random stuff
59
1 basket
1 pair of boots
2 kitchen towels
=
63

That’s 21 x 3, baby!!!!

Not bad for the challenges final day, if I may say so myself 😉

How have I done throughout this challenge?

My final count = 380 items out-the-door!

And you know what? I’m not even done yet 😉

I’ve been joined in this challenge by:
– Barb, at Decluttering The Stuff, 14 days. Total count: 146.
– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, is still deep into her filing cabinet…
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, has gotten rid of 12-13 bag/boxes of stuff!
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, is taking a day off, she have shed amazingly 671 items so far.

and
– Gilly over at Anything but housework, just got rid of 11 trash bags from her closet!
– Liliia at Bring your baby abroad have been visiting her mum and decluttered her old room.

There is stuff…

…finally going out-the-door! Long overdue, I know 😉

About a week ago, I mentioned that Heather over at Simply Save was inspiring me, to get back into decluttering with her minsgame. Now, my original plan wasn’t really playing the minsgame, I just wanted to get back into decluttering. To finish off my goal of 365 item out-the-door for 2015.

But I was thinking today, that maybe it could be fun to play part of the minsgame anyways, kind of a minsgame light 😉

As we all know Christmas is a big part of this month, and that holiday is a time to spend with family and friends (not decluttering), so come Christmas time I won’t be around the house much.

My plan is to play the minsgame until and including December 20th. After that, my holiday starts with me leaving for a few days to hang out with family.

That means (if my calculations are correct) that 210 items should be leaving the house this month. Now, I know a lot of people that play the minsgame, get rid of the number of items that follow the date. Something that Moving Forward is doing, right now. But me! I’ve never been good at following rules 😉 so I figure that as long as 210 items leave the house before the 20th, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 or 77 at a time.

So here it is, my first installment of 69 items out-the-door!

Clothing – 44

1 windproof fleece jacket
6 t-shirts
1 pair of sweatpants
1 nike nylon sports pants
2 thin fleece tops
1 medium thick sweater
1 thin cotton long sleeved top
1 knitted jacket
1 high neck sweater
1 pair of jogging shoes
5 pair of jeans
1 pair of office pants
6 bras
15 undies
1 bicycle shirts

Other stuff – 25

2 drinking bottles
4 egg holders
2 “Pc covers”
1 exercise ball
1 exercise ball DVD
1 pc backpack
2 flower pots
1 cup
7 small plastic containe
1 network cable
2 CD disk cases
1 pc cover

Closet time again!

The last few weeks, I’ve been chipping at my closet again.

One of our fellow bloggers, Becoming a minimalist is impressing the heck out of me. She has her closet under iron control, being down to a couple of shoes (shucks, I have about 24 pairs if I count all including flip-flops) and about 30? items of clothing. She follows a rule of three! 3 pair of pants, 3 cardigans, 3 t-shirts, 3 jackets and so on.

In my heart, I wish I could be on her level, but in my head, I realise that it’s not going to happen 🙂 It’s also not really practical, considering how I do my laundry.

Living on my own, it takes a bit of clothing to fill up my washing machine. As I separate my clothing into dark and light, my machine don’t run very often, since towels, and bedding is done separately from my everyday clothing. Now that I’m home a lot, I live in the same stuff all the time.. and the machine runs even more seldom than normal.. which means that I need enough underwear, socks, t-shirts and pants to last me at least a fortnight.. no rule of 3 for me.. no siree…

Like most people, I tend to use the same items of clothing over, and over again, and I’m your typical t-shirt and jeans kinda girl! Now, girl, might not be “politicly” correct as I just turned 50, but never mind, I’m sticking to my original statement, I’m your typical t-shirt and jeans kinda girl 😉

But even for me, there are occasions where I need to dress up a little better. A meeting at work with vendors, a birthday or Christmas… you know what I’m talking about. So there are a few staple items I have no choice but to keep in my closet – unless I want the wrath of my mothers (yes both mum’s) to fall on me – even at 50…. Hey, don’t laugh at me.. you all know how mothers can be 😉

So with that in mind, T-shirt and jeans for me, pretty clothing for those couple (or ten) occasions a year, and having enough to fill up my machines, I’ve been attacking my closet, weeding a few more items out of my pile…

Last year I got rid of around 100 pieces of clothing and about 14 pairs of shoes, you’d think there wouldn’t be anything left for me to find! But there is! Even with my goal in mind, I still end up with 7 pants, 10 shirts and enough t-shirts and undies to start my own store… not to mention the sweaters, tops, sports attire, sleepwear, socks, belts…. and shoes… those darn shoes…

There is obviously no hope for me as I still have ways to go 😦

But here at least, is my latest instalment of clothing out-the-door! 72 items

1 dress jacket
1 green dress
1 jacket for the green dress
1 long summer dress
5 shirts
1 thin sweater
1 thick jacket (my dads)
1 thick fleece (my dads)
2 shorts
4 decorative scarf
3 t-shirts
2 sweaters
1 fleece
3 tank tops
1 pink top
1 workout top
1 scarf (dads)
1 pair of gloves
1 pair of Welly warmers (which just didn’t ever work, as they came out with my feet when taking the boots off)
1 cap
1 rain jacket
6 hankies
1 pair of cosy socks/indoor “shoes”
2 golf gloves
2 belts
8 bras (which I will save you from – picture wise – together with the other unmentionables 😉 )
2 sleepwear shorts
12 undies (Some with tags on. I’m sure I still have enough for the next 30 years, so I really needed to get rid of some 😉 )
1 pair of flip flops
4 pairs of shoes – bicycle, everyday, dancing and office shoes

A Christmas shed!

Would you believe it, even during Christmas I managed to shed a few things 🙂

I had my family over for brunch on what we call second Christmas day, which I believe most of you call Boxing day?

I thought I could use this opportunity to have one of the girls try on a pair of shoes I’m getting rid of, as she is almost the same shoe size as me. Turns out I have no takes on the shoes, but I did, on a couple of the other thing 🙂

While we were upstairs looking at the shoes, the other girls came up, and you know how it is, when there are clothes, and a bunch of girls… 🙂

It’s so funny…my style is pretty much what we could call a kinda conservative/sporty/classic/casual style, I have no idea what that would be in fashion terms. But I’m the jeans, t-shirt, fleece kinda girl, that when I do dress up, I prefer pants and no frills tops and shirts. Dress or a skirt? Not something you see on me very often 🙂

The girls in my family on the other hand… love to dress up! And I have to admit, they really know how to put their outfits together, and they look gorgeous!

So you can see how I wouldn’t really expect that there would be much in my closet for them. But believe it or not! Out went a couple of shirts, a sweater, a cardigan and…

a really pretty vest, which I have no idea why I ever bought! It’s knitted in the back and rabbit skin in the front, I just couldn’t seem to ever make it work on me. My niece on the other hand; tall, skinny, beautiful, could have been a model if she wanted (she decided she wanted a degree more, which I applaud), always nicely put together and picky about what she wears. The vest, it looks great on her… so guess where it now resides.. absolutely not in my closet any more 🙂

In addition to clothing, I have a painting by Pia Myrvold, I had mentioned to my step-sister (as she is looking for art for her new house), that she decided to not only take a look at, but also to buy from me! How cools is that?

So there you have it – Christmas shed of thing out-the-door – 6 items

2 shirts
1 cardigan
1 sweater
1 vest
1 painting

Finally out of here…

Here we are!

Another pile of stuff going out-the-door!

Phew!

Remember I told you (both on October and November tally), about this pile of things I was holding for my neighbour to have a look? Well, we finally managed to find five minutes to look through it 🙂

This weekend she took of with a couple of boxes with stuff! She didn’t take it all (and I didn’t expect her to) but she still relieved me of probably about 95 percentage of my pile – and I’m ever so happy.

I have to admit, it’s just so much easier to “declutter” when there are people you know, who might find them useful.

And here it is, the stuff she took and a few things extra, my pile of stuff out-the-door – 90 items:

2 magazine holders
3 microwave items
1 ice cube tray
3 plastic boxes to store food in + a box of ziploc bags
1 serving tray
3 candle holders
1 pack of plastic spoons
1 pack of plastic straws (should be a hit with her kids)
2 wine openers
3 wine stoppers
1 huge sport drink reusable bottle
1 reusable lunch bag
1 small porcelain bowl
4 long stemmed wine glasses
1 tea box full of different teas
1 plastic box (the one with an X I’m keeping for now.. I have an idea and if it works I’ll post about it 🙂 )
1 cut board
1 decorative glass bowl
1 tiny shots glass
Bunch of rubber band (bracelets) – count as 1
7 watches (she took a couple for her kids)
18 Christmas decoration items
1 box of decorative tiny apples (Christmas stuff)
3 bean babies
1 head light
1 big storage box (all the stuff she took with her fit in the box – it’s that big 🙂 )
1 pair of running shoes (another friend took earlier)
2 medium size storage boxes (perfect for her kids toys)

67 items

And then there are some clothing I do not have a photo off, that also went out the-the-door this weekend:

1 pair of jeans
6 bras
7 pantyhose
3 pairs of socks
2 short sleeved bicycle tops
1 pair of shorts
1 pair of dress pants
1 t-shirt
1 sleep shorts

Another 23 items 🙂

August tally

So let’s see, did I ever get anything out-the-door during the month of August?

Well yes, actually I did! Even though I’m still doing pretty poorly according to my intentions 😦

Remember; I did have a day earlier in August, where I got a few things out-the-door. And I tackled my “junk” drawer. And the last day of the month, a white tornado went through my house and I ended up with another pile of stuff that will be going out of the house over the next few days. Since that pile is still pretty much sitting here.. they won’t count much on August tally, but hopefully on September they will 😉

So lets see, what did August actually amount to?

AUGUST TALLY of things “out-the-door” = 45 items

24 – items on my day getting back on my declutter wagon

1 jacket
1 pair of pants
1 thermal underwear top
6 T-shirt
2 pairs of knitted wool socks
1 BIG piece of silk – bought in Malaysia in 1995, intending to have a dress made…. like that ever happened!
1 clutch
1 bed sheet that don’t fit any of my beds…?
1 pair of boots – they seemed like a good idea when I got them, but they’ve never been used…
1 book – Thor Heyerdal, the adventurer
2 software CDs never used
4 empty DVD boxes (count as 1)
1 pair of sandals – never used, what was I thinking with those heels!
1 plastic serving tray (broken)
1 almanac – 2010
1 shirt – dads – and
1 cardigan – dads – they won’t ever get used and it’s been almost 1,5 years, it’s time to let them go!

Bunch of items – while clearing my junk drawer – (count as 4)

1 wallet (worn out)
1 flash-light (broken)
Several outdoor pieces (never used, and never will be used) – count as 1
Loads of paper/menus/business cards ++ – count as 1

In addition I finally cleared out some of my toiletries, that I talked about like forever ago in Thriftiness getting in the way of decluttering – I gave most of it to mum 🙂

1 big box of hairspray
1 box of night cream
1 bottle of toner
1 bottle of serum
1 small bag of miscellaneous make-up/trial creams/++
1 bottle of massage oil (it was so old it went into the trash)
Bunch of other stuff – count as 1
1 bottle of shampoo
1 bottle of conditioner

And a few things from my “white tornado” day have actually made it out-the-door 🙂

1 Backpack (a friend of mine, way more sporty than me – took this one, and cover and Adidas bag)
1 travel cover for backpack
1 Adidas bag
1 sports bag
3 pc bags
1 weight lift bar (given to a friend, who hopefully will use this more that I ever did 😉 )

So that’s it, for the month of August – 45 items. Not to shabby after all 😉

Back again…

As I told you in my last post, July tally, the last few weeks I have pretty much just relaxed and enjoyed my time off.

But enough is enough, it’s time to get back at it 😉

Back to my declutter task, back to my blog and back to getting some stuff done around the house!

So here is my first instalment, getting back on my declutter wagon!

1 jacket
1 pair of pants
1 thermal underwear top
6 T-shirt
2 pairs of knitted wool socks
1 BIG piece of silk – bought in Malaysia in 1995, intending to have a dress made…. like that ever happened!
1 clutch
1 bed sheet that don’t fit any of my beds…?
1 pair of boots – they seemed like a good idea when I got them, but they’ve never been used…
1 book – Thor Heyerdal, the adventurer
2 software CDs never used
4 empty DVD boxes (count as 1)
1 pair of sandals – never used, what was I thinking with those heels!
1 plastic serving tray (broken)
1 almanac – 2010
1 shirt – dads – and
1 cardigan – dads – they won’t ever get used and it’s been almost 1,5 years, it’s time to let them go!

24 items, woohoo 😉

Now, if decluttering the rest of the house would just be this easy…

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