My paper pile from hell!

I told you yesterday I was going to find ALL the paper in my house and pull it together in a pile or two!

Well I did… and here it is! My paper pile from hell!

Yeah, I should probably have heaped it all into a big hazardous pile. I’m sure that would have looked way more impressive 🙂 But, I’m just to organized, what can I say?

It might not look to bad, but I’m telling you.. there are still about 54 inches of paper… 😦

You wouldn’t by any chance be struggle with papers, just like me, now would you? Why not join me in culling it all down!

Taxes – and the paper monster!

April is tax time here in Norway. You get all your information drizzling in over a couple of months and by April 30th you better have your taxes done and delivered or hell breaks loose… or does it?

Actually no, it doesn’t, any longer…

You see, Norway started with e-filing quite a few years ago, where you pretty much just had to check, correct and press a button to file your tax return, and you were done. Nice right?

Well, now we have gone even further. Now we don’t have to do anything, absolutely zilch, nada, nope…

You see, the rule is that if you don’t press that button to “file and approve” your tax return, they just assume that you “approve” the numbers the tax authorities have concluded with, and it’s being automatically filed for you… Great yeah? Well, yes it is, IF they have your numbers correct in the system.

And that’s a big IF! Regardless of how automated taxes are becoming, I would always recommend to take an hour or two and check it properly. Check that they have the correct amounts on your pay and deductibles, that they have not forgotten anything or added something that should not be there. They might not know about all the little things about you, make sure you add them. It can pay off, as every little amount can help reduce the final amount of taxes.

So, every year, end of April, I sit down to do my taxes, and at the same time, I start to go through the rest of my paper monster 😉

My taxes don’t yield a lot of paper any more, as most everything is online. And truth be told, the rest of the year don’t yield a lot either. But even though most of my stuff is now online at different institutions, I still seem to manage to hold on to a significant amount of papers anyway. And this year that stops!

I have decided that this is the year to digitize my entire paper pile! Everything that I want/need to keep, that is in paper form, will be scanned over the next few months. And it all starts, today, people. It all starts today 🙂

So what kind of papers have I been holding on to and collected?

Tax papers
Insurance papers
Birth certificates
Medical papers
Pension information
Warranty receipts
Work papers
Some bills
Old letters and postcards
Random cut outs from magazines
Scraps of papers with all kinds of scribbles on (yes, that would be my scribbles)
+++

As you can see from the list, I’m holding on to a lot of paper related stuff (I have a few shelves and boxes full) so you can see how this might take me a while to go through.

My game plan:

Tomorrow I’m going to collect all and I mean ALL the paper I have in my house and put it in a pile or two or ten 🙂 I think there will be a few piles as I’m sure I have way more paper stashed around than I realise.

And thats when the real works starts! I’m going to have to go through everything, and decide what to toss, what to shred, what to scan and what to keep as physical paper.

But… before I can get to the scanning part… I need to get my hands on a half decent two-sided paper scanner, so guess that’s also on my list of things to do.

Stay tuned…. I’ll be posting all about that terrible pile…. yes, soon!! 😉

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

Minimalist packing!

After my experience of “lost” luggage on my trip to US last year (it took them 4 days to find it), I’ve decided to try a more minimalistic approach to my packing.

I’ve come across a lot of ultralight packing sites lately, where they travel with 20-32 litres bags, for months at a time. Now, there is no way I’ll ever be on their level of “small” luggage, but I should be able to travel for a week with hand luggage only, wouldn’t you think?

Here is the plan, one carry on and a purse of some sort! Now that can’t be too bad, I am after all only going to be gone for a week, so shouldn’t really need all that much stuff… right?

It all sounded fine, until I got mums shopping list, for Norwegian jam and mayonnaise, and then there is the chocolate I need to bring, a book or two for my mum… What it boils down to, is that since the jam jar are bigger than the allowed 100 ml carry on bottles, the luggage have to go into the belly of the plane. As I’m travelling with a friend of mine (B), we’ve decided to send one of our carry ons as regular luggage and bring the other into the cabin. With only one carry on each, we still get to practice packing a “lighter” load.

So what am I bringing?

Well.. let’s see.

Beside all the goodies for my mum and my brother, this is pretty much my packing list for a week in England:

1 blue jeans (wearing on the plane)
1 white jeans (for dressing up)
1 blue top (for dressing up)
4 t-shirts (1 for the plane)
1 thin long sleeved shirt
1 tank tops
1 hooded top (wearing)
1 very thin sweater (for dressing up)
1 short
1 belt for shorts
1 belt for jeans (wearing)
flip plops
jogging shoes (wearing)
thin rain jacket
thin down packable jacked (wearing)
2 sleep shorts
1 lounge pant
underwear/bra
3 pair of socks (wearing 1)
thin neck scarf (to protect me from getting cold on the plane)
toiletries – the regular stuff like toothbrush/paste, face and body oil, shampoo, contact lenses, medication ++
2 iPads + chargers (my mini, and mums Christmas present (yes, the one she hasn’t gotten yet))
small camera
phone + charger + ear buds
book to read on the trip
passport, money and e-ticket
sunglasses
regular glasses for the evenings
travel adapter
1 box of Nescafe Cafe au Chocolate – gotta have my choca mocha fix, you know;-)

My gosh.. that is one awful long list of things.. doesn’t seem very minimalistic now, does it?

I’m sure I’ve packed more than I’ll need, but never mind. It’s not like I’ll be trekking this luggage all over the world now, is it? It’s only a quick trip to hang out with family. Still, it’s a good way to test how little I can get away with for a weeks trip.

So is all this stuff going to fit into my small carry on?

Well… take a look, and see for yourself 🙂

It all fit!

Thankfully, half of the stuff is not coming back home with me. Which means, when it comes down to it, I packed with space to spare 😉

So, off I go, tomorrow morning… See you in London!

Packing party – a sum up!

I never knew, when I planed out doing a packing party, that it would turn out to be as hard as it was.

It sounded so easy, this idea about doing one room at a time, for just a few days. And I had this notion that it would go by in a flash, and would reap large rewards in decluttered items.

Well, that’s not quite what happened, as you probably have gathered from how long it actually took me to do this!

I started out real good, and then somewhere half way, I ran into a bump, mostly due to the fact that I really didn’t have enough boxes to pack things in. And I did not like how cluttered my guest room was becoming, from all the discarded items from my other rooms. My own fault, as I couldn’t seem to get the items out the door, because I was fumbling around, never taking the time to actually take the pictures and sit down and write the post about them. Yeah, my bad, I know!

I’m telling you, it will be a long time before I try something like this again… if ever 😉

I did learn a thing or two though during my declutter party!

I learned that I obviously have short staying power… the first days out, I wanted to do my whole house all in one, but as I had said I would do one room at a time, I had to pace myself… Yeah! I’m not good at that. I’m more of the the get it done now kinda person, rather than the slow haul kinda person… guess I should keep that in mind for my next project 😉

I also learned that as much as I had decluttered, there are still “mountains” of stuff left that could probably go out-the-door, but I have also learned that sometimes we need time, before we are “ready” to let it out of our lives.

The things that have left my building during this packing party, are things that have survived several culling before, and I can see there are a few items, that made it through this round, that will most likely go out the door, next time around (after I’ve had a minute to think about it).

I guess this is just the way it is, slow and steady getting there, on our path towards minimalism!

Even though I never quite got rid of as much as I hoped I would, there was a few rooms that surprised me in the “loots” they provided.

I expected to find most of my stuff in the living room and guest room, this is not quite how it turned out, even though these rooms wielded the bigger items. It was the kitchen and my bedroom that surprised me most, as these where the rooms I was sure I had already gotten down to the “bare bones”. Guess it just goes to show, that we change our level of needs and wants as we move along minimising our possessions.

Since I have called this post packing party – a sum up, I guess it’s only fair to let you in on what my packing party amounted to in out-the-door items.

So here it is a total of 194 items out-the-door!

Bathroom – 33 items
Bedroom – 54 items
Kitchen – 51 items
Living room – 26 items
Guest room – 30 items

Not quite the number I was hoping for, but chipping away at it will get me there in the end 🙂 Fortunately this time around there was a few “big” ticket items, leaving me with a bit more “empty” space as a result!

As with a lot of things in life, it’s easier when you get a little help along the way. I could not have done this without some of my fellow bloggers, who have either decluttered alongside with me or cheered me on. There are to many to mention, but you all know who you are 😉 All I can say is, Thank you!

Packing party – guest room and living room results!

It’s raining outside, and it’s time to let you inn on how the last part of my packing party went!

As you might remember from a few weeks back, I told you my guest room was next on the list.

Weeeell… it didn’t go quite according to plan… The guest room is a horrible room to do the pretend packing party on, as I think I probably have almost as much stuff in this one room, as I have it the rest of the house put together!

As I mentioned before, the room have a few big huge IKEA wardrobe cabinets. And since I don’t really have any indoor storage rooms, I use these cabinets to store all my linens, towels, guest bedding, sport items, computer peripherals, office stuff, Christmas decorations, photo collections and I could go on 😉

As good as my intention was to pull everything out, pack it up and leave it for a few days, I lost heart somewhere in the middle and just couldn’t do it..

You see, I have gone through and decluttered this room several times over the last few years. And there have been soo much stuff that have gone out-the-door, specifically from this one room, that I’m now having a really hard time.

But, even though I didn’t pack it up, I still found a few things, that needed to go out-the-door, which after all, was the idea behind the packing party 😉

When I did my living room, most of the stuff that I found that needed to go out-the-door, got “stored” in my guest room, so below you will find the result from both the guest room and living room.

So why don’t we just get to it! Here it is, the results from my living room and guest room – 56 items out-the-door! I have to admit, it’s not as much as I would have wanted, but this time around, there are a few bigger items, so storage wise, I have actually cleared out a bit…

Guest room – 30 items out-the-door

2 long wood candle holders
1 flower pot
1 travel iron
3 books
2 very large vases
1 spatula
1 travel headset
1 makeup bag
1 platter
1 leather foot rest
1 tennis ball
3 puzzles
1 battery run toothbrush
2 charger “stations”
1 wool carpet
1 smartcard reader + misc cables/plugs
1 cable tube
6 practice golf balls

Living room – 26 items out-the-door

1 small “vase”
1 VHS tape
1 glass bowl
2 DVD Cases
4 table place mats
1 table runner
2 fruit/decorative bowls
1 large glass decorative bowl/vase
4 glass candle holders
1 large headset
2 tall vases
1 gamegear
9 games to the gamegear + 1 box to keep them in
1 glass vase
1 glass decorative bowl/vase
3 small glass vases

Saving a tree or two…?

After my February plastic trash challenge, I got inspired and started to look more closely at everything else I toss.

Now that I have some sort of control over my plastic trash, and gotten into a good routine of using the plastic recycle bag, I have found that most of my other trash is paper (advertising/junk mail) and food scraps.

Let’s talk about the junk mail. I tend to look through all the advertising from grocery stores, as I try to save a little when possible. I bulk up on some of my everyday products, when there is a good sale. All these adverts ends up in the paper recycle bin, so the paper is recycled, but I would have loved not contributing so much to paper waste.

I discussed this with a friend of mine that I do a bit of grocery shopping with, and we decided that, since I am the one who pays attention to when there are good deals to be had, he would be the one to put the “No junk” sticker on his mailbox. This way we can at least reduce one household of paper! And hopefully over time, I can figure out what advertising I “need” and see if I can find it online instead, to ultimate reduce two households!

But for now, the sticker is on his mailbox, there is one less household filled with paper junk and he think this is the best idea we (I’ve) have had since… ever!

I know it’s not much in the big picture of things, but a bit here, and a bit there… ads up eventually 😉

Packing party – Kitchen! And results!

I knew I would run into trouble with my kitchen packing party, and I was right.. I sure ran into a bump in the road with this one. And I have to confess, I did not pack it up like I should.

I’ve decluttered my kitchen, so many times, that every time I opened a cabinet or drawer to empty it, I took one look and realised that there wasn’t really any reason to pack it, as I would just put all the stuff right back where it belonged… So I didn’t, pack it that is!

My bad!

But even though I did not follow my own rules on this one, I did however manage to shed a few things after all 🙂

And here it is, my kitchen shed;

4 measure cups
2 knives
1 mixing bowl
1 set of tiny glad bowls to store food in
1 metal water bottle
2 serving bowls
1 swiffer duster handle
4 cleaning cloths
2 dinner plates
1 trash bin
1 food scrap trash bin
2 cereal bowls
1 frying pan
Bunch of small river rock, sand and shells for decorations – count as 5
1 terracotta plant watering “tube”
2 ice cube trays
1 pair of chop sticks
1 thong to grab hot bowls
1 broken soup bowl – that obviously didn’t want to hang around it’s siblings any longer…
Bunch of decorate stuff for flower arrangements – 17 items

I can’t believe it, that actually turned into 51 items out-the-door, that’s kinda cool! (small happy dance going on here 😉 )

So what room is next?

As I mentioned in my last post, doing the hallway would just be a joke (or a very easy pass) as my hallway is the size of a stamp, and the only thing in it, is the entrance door and a closet. And not to mention that this closet I have already gone through several times, and there is nothing left to get rid off. If I take a seriously good look, I might find a pair of shoes that could need new shoelaces, but other than that, only a few dust bunnies are to be had 🙂

Then there is the guest room. That’s a whole other ballgame! There is no doubt it needs to be done… but right now it looks like an overstuffed piñata, filled up with; boxes from other rooms that are not quite emptied yet, some of the stuff that is going out-the-door that I’m hoping I will find takers for, piles of out-the-door items I have not written about yet ++ It’s been literally treated as an overflow area during my packing party, and it’s a hot mess.

The guest room is NOT going to be fun, as I have a few big huge IKEA wardrobe cabinets, filled with stuff. Since I don’t have much storage rooms, I use these cabinets to store my Christmas decorations, photo collections, electrical stuff, towels, bed linen, guest pillows and covers, golf stuff, other smaller sports stuff, speakers, printer, cables… you get my drift, yes? It is where I store everything!!!

So this is how this is going to go!

This coming weekend, I will clear the room of all the “junk”, unpack the items that belong elsewhere, and prepare myself…

For the following weekend, which will be crunch time for the guest room 😉

Packing Party results – part 1

Hi there,

I’m sure you are all wondering if there have been any result from my pseudo packing party, at least with regards of items out-the-door!

I’m happy to say that yes, there have been 😉

There aren’t any big ticket items that I’ve found I can get rid off, but there have been a bunch of the little things. Those items that hide in between the stuff that is easily “seen”. The items you don’t notice because they are just part of the rest of the stuff or collection or… you get my drift 😉

This time around, we are talking result from the bathroom and bedroom packing party. The other ones will follow 😉

I am a bit shocked when it comes to my bedroom. Since I wasn’t doing my closet, I really didn’t think there was much left to toss, as I have cleared the place numerous times… but it turns out, there were, as you can see from below 😉

So let’s get to it. How did I do? Well, here it is, 87 items out-the-door!

Bathroom – 33 items

Bunch of cosmetics, brushes, nail files, nail clippers – 16 items
Bunch of creams and lotions – 7 items
Hair stuff – 2 items
1 body brush
Bunch of random stuff – 5 items
Bunch of contacts lenses I can’t use – count as 1
1 towel rack

Bedroom – 54 items

1 old worn out small backpack, it’s travelled just about every place with me, it’s sad to see it go, but it’s beyond repair..
1 laptop cover
1 broken bracelet, that I’m obviously not going to fix as it’s been like this for the last three years
1 broken hanger
1 jewellery/watch tray
8 jewellery boxes
Purse cover bag + some plastic cover bags – count as 1
Bunch of small tubes of massage oil, aeons old and probably no longer useful – count as 2 as I had 2 bags of them
1 magnetic picture frame, never used
4 instant hand warmers (bought for a bike trip long time ago, and never used)
1 hand sanitizer and 1 bottle of ?? (for the same bike trip) – count as 2
1 ice pack (Bought long time ago when I was a goalie (handball and soccer), I’m only keeping one bag for emergencies)
2 covers for hanging clothes
1 funny scroll about Norwegians (damn, I forgot to take a picture of the text before I tossed it 😦 )
5 bags for packing stuff when you travel (I have several, and these I’ve never used)
18+ pieces of misc stuff
3 wall posters
1 wall poster tube

Packing party – Living room!

Hi there,

it’s that time again. Time for me to tell you how I’m doing with my living room packing party.

Like with the other rooms, I started a little early (Wednesday) but I have a confession to make… I didn’t really do all that OK with packing everything I have in my living room. Mostly because, I ran out of boxes, and truth be told, steam 😦

Let me explain. I started up, pulling everything out of my big credenza. But realised really quick, that if I was to fill my boxes with bowls and decoration, I would fill them up in no time and have no room for all the other stuff. So I used my boxes for stuff from drawers instead. Filled them up with computer items, table cloths, candle holders, cards, games, papers, small decoration pieces, all that little junk that I had stashed away everywhere. And not to forget the DVD/Blu-Rays, that was a whole box on it’s own. And that wasn’t even all of them.. good thing I’m already working on a separate watch myself out of my movie collection project 🙂

After all the boxes was full, I took the decorations from any surfaces in the living room (with the exception of lamps and my grandfathers old typewriter) and stuffed them into the credenza instead, just to get them out of sight.

Right now my living room looks a bit bare (compared to before)… and I love it! I know I was only supposed to leave the room “empty” for 48 hours.. but I’m liking it so much I’m having a hard time putting things back on the surfaces. So I won’t. Yet!

I am however unpacking the rest of the living room stuff, to free up the boxes.

There are a few things that I know will be going out-the-door as a result of this living room round 🙂 Unfortunately I have also come to a conclusion, that will most likely result in me getting a few new items 😦

I have a lot of decorative pieces made out of clear glass, and they are really nice, but I’ve realised that since they are all clear glass it takes a “lot” of them to show up! And it quickly becomes cluttered.

I think I need to change it up a little, maybe bring in fewer and bigger pieces. We will see! Right now I’m just going to leave it nice and “empty” and slowly incorporate items as I find the right things.

So what room is next?

I seem to be having a bit of trouble with this one. You see, since I live in a small home, the only rooms left are the kitchen, entrance hallway and guest-room.

Doing the entrance area would just be teasing you guys, since it is the size of a stamp. Seriously, you open the front door, take one step in, then take one step to the left.. and you’re literally in the kitchen.. the hall is that small. The only thing I have in my “hallway” is one closet for outerwear and shoes.

The kitchen, I have gone through so many times and it is about as streamlined as I can get it.. that I’m not sure what purpose the packing would have..

And then there is the guest room. This is the room I have been using as a stash space during my packing party, which have resulted in it being filled with all the other rooms “leftovers”. It seems like I need to leave this room for last, as I need to clear out the other rooms leftovers first. And I could need a week or two for that 😉

What to do, what to do???

OK, I know.. while writing about my last rooms, I’ve decided I could probably do with one more round in the kitchen 🙂 So guess what?

Kitchen it is! Are your coming?

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Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

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