Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Daily Declutter

Yesterday I accomplished not much, and it was lovely. My daughter had a study group of friends over, and I tried to remain inconspicuous. Mom's can put a damper on conversation if they are too obvious, so I sat and read my book more than I have on a weekday in living memory.

Today I got some work done! I'm still working on clearing off a shelving unit in the garage. I hope I will soon be able to list it on Craigslist, but I'm working on it slowly. My husband adapts to change better if it happens slowly, and so I am slowly moving this large shelving unit out of the way. I cleared a couple shelves today, but I didn't post the dog clippers to Craigslist yet, I'll give him a chance to think about that first. Then I'll only have one shelf worth of items to rehome or remove, and the shelves can leave. Once the shelves leave the bicycles can take that spot, and the truck can move back into the garage.

When I moved the ice cream maker out to the storage shed, I spent a few minutes evaluating the snow gear I keep stored out there. It turns out I had a pair of snow pants that no longer fit anyone in my family, so those are now residing in the donation box, along with a pair of mittens that are too small.

I will be mailing a cake plate I sold on ebay. I am now down to only three cake plates, which sounds like more than any family could possibly use in this day and age. However, one is used primarily for birthday cakes, one is for Easter decorating, and the last is used every day as storage for muffins, scone and bread leftover. Much nicer than plastic, and they don't dry out. I haven't gotten rid of the two low use cake plates, but they are being considered for removal. We'll see how it goes, but that is for the future. As I have said before, I would like to work toward minimalism without making my family crazy, and not taking too much away too quickly is part of that.

A minor thing I worked on is my collection of CDs. We still listen to them in the truck, but we had developed too many, and they no longer fit in the CD wallet we have. So we thinned the herd a little bit, and the holder now fits better in the truck. Not a major thing, but every little bit helps. Old CDs went to the kids' school, to be a craft project.

2 comments:

  1. You are making great progress and I think the slow, thoughtful approach leads to fewer regrets and more lasting change. I bet you are finding that your mindset about purchasing additional items is changing too.

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  2. Thanks, Juhli. I really have changed my attitude toward buying things! I used to be tempted to stop by and "look," but I was so often tempted to buy things I didn't really need. Now, I rarely "look," and even less often do I buy. I appreciate the encouragement, because I would like to see immediate change, but of course that isn't practical. I didn't clutter in a day, so I can't change the other way in a day either!

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