Sunday, December 20, 2009

Hello and Welcome to Our New Followers

As the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge blog has received a few new followers as of late, I thought I should post a little "Hello and welcome!" to all our new friends.

Please enjoy past posts and future ones that come out infrequently on the 22nd of the month. My blogging is primarily done over at my other blog (Taking Care Of You), however, decluttering is still near and dear in my heart so I simply can't stop sharing decluttering perspective and tips over here with you all!

If you're not familiar with the introduction of Taking Care Of You over here on the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge blog, here is a snippet:
The 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge is key in Taking Care Of You. Simply put, any area of our life where we focus our awareness will grow us from the inside out.

To that end, decluttering is a form of taking care of ourselves, believe it or not. By accepting your own 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, you began a journey towards improving the quality of your life from the outside in. Removing a single piece of clutter each day doesn't completely clear an entire life's worth of clutter, especially mental clutter. However, it does begin to grow an awareness inside you about self-worth, creating a life of abundance versus scarcity, etc.

Developing an enhanced awareness of yourself is what the Taking Care Of You blog (affectionately known as TCOY) is all about. Putting yourself in the line of priority, and right in front, is not selfish thinking but rather just thinking proactively.There is no better person to know, understand or believe in than you.
I hope you'll stop by Taking Care Of You to say hello now and again. A great place to start right now is to check out posts on the topic of Life Clutter. I certainly do miss hearing great feedback from you all about your decluttering efforts and willingness to share a comment to help inspire others!

Top 5 Posts:
How I Define Clutter
Decluttering: A How-To
I'd Rather Stay Home From Work and De-junk
Decluttering Made Simple (27-17-7)
Ever Felt Afraid to Declutter?

Sunday, November 22, 2009

'Tis The Season To Declutter

With the huge gift giving season on the horizon, now is an excellent time to put on your decluttering goggles and look over the things around your home. Clearing out items that are unused, unloved, unwanted or unneeded (the real kind, not the guilt-provoking one) will allow you to prepare your home to have a spot available for the new stuff.

For inspiration, I've listed several excellent resources from around the web over on Taking Care of You that will give you new insight or just a swift kick of motivation. Decluttering is a worthwhile and freeing exercise so have fun!

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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Suzanne Is Unplugged (At Her Weekend Home)

Hello, this is Suzanne. If you have reached this message, I am away at the moment. Any messages left for me will be returned, once I have returned, in the order they were received. Hope you make it a great day and, as always, thank you for your interest in the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge.

(beep)

At my regular day job, I love when it comes time to change my extension's voicemail to a vacation message. In the days preceeding it, the anticipation builds as I eagerly count down until it's time to go like an excited child. Recording the message just sends me that much higher because I know that tomorrow is the day when I get to get away. And, now, as I'm writing this a few days before I leave for 6 days on vacation, I'm feeling that old familiar feeling. It's almost time to go, yay!

Until July 11th, I can be found around our weekend home or on my weekend couch.



As there is no internet access where we go, I'm going to enjoy my unplugged time! I'll be back soon. :-)

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Follow Me Over to Inspired to Write

Today, I’m excited to be a guest blogger at Inspired to Write. While Julie is away for two weeks on a mission trip in Croatia, please enjoy the guest posts she has lined up to inspire you.

My guest post is about adapting the 27-17-7 method of decluttering to free yourself to write. You didn't realize the method could be adapted? Oh, yes indeed, it can. Take a look over at Inspired to Write and see for yourself. Please leave a comment and let me know how I did on my very first guest post! I’d greatly appreciate it.

To those arriving here via Inspired to Write, please take a look around the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge blog. I'm sure you will find inspiration for taking babysteps towards clearing the clutter from your life, in all its forms.

Below are posts especially chosen for my new visitors. They will let you know more about the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge and provide motivation for you to accept your own 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge!

Introducing the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge
How I Define Clutter
Congratulations Challengers!
I'd Rather Stay Home From Work and De-junk
Ever felt afraid to declutter?
Focus Challenge - Month 10

Again, thanks so much to Julie at Inspired to Write for allowing me to be a guest blogger and for providing much needed inspiration to us all!

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Mommy-Files Giveaway ~ Toshiba Portege A-600 Laptop

Entries being accepted at The Mommy-Files for a giveaway prize of a Toshiba Portege A-600 Laptop until 11:59 p.m. PST on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009.


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Friday, May 22, 2009

Decluttering Made Simple (27-17-7)

A post on the FlyLadies & More forum was very useful so I am sharing it with you all here.

It's called 27-17-7.

As you can see on the link above, the original idea was to do the first part of a 27 Fling Boogie by going through your home and finding 27 items that need to be thrown away. Repeat daily. Once you've cleared the home of the obvious trash, the next step is to choose 17 items that you don't need, love, use or want and donate, sell or otherwise get to a home that is not yours! Again, doing this every day "Until there is nothing left to donate...not even an extra pair of shoes." The final step was to find 7 homeless items and return them to their home or designate a home for them.

And, as we all know, decluttering doesn't have a stopping point. The last part from the post is: "When you've done that, start again." Oh man!

Inspired by these 3 simple steps, I've begun using the 27-17-7 plan in my home.

--> As I collect bits off the floor, empty junk mail off the desk, etc. I put the items into a small bag. At the end of the week, I've usually collected more than 27 things. It's amazing to realize that. Taking the time to do this extra step has reminded me about how doing a little here & there can accomplish so much!

--> I put items that I've defined as clutter in our Donation Station every day, as usual. At the end of the week, I count them as I move them from a temporary bag to the one that I take to the charity. There's always at least 7 items; for one item a day. What can I say? I've been trained.

--> As I live with a messie for a husband and have 2 small children, I can easily find 7 items a day to bring back to their homes.

Each of us is taking a different decluttering journey based on our starting points. None are less noble than another.

If you are completing a 27-17-7 every day, wow, look at you go! If, like me, you've decluttered your life to where it's a weekly event, that's terrific. Or maybe you live more simply (kudos to you) and can not finish a 27-17-7 in a week's time. The important part is that you celebrate your efforts once you have done so.

Every single one of us is taking action towards reducing the physical and mental clutter in our lives. For that, I am so proud of you. Keep going!

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

365 Days of Decluttering Challenge Meet TCOY

The 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge is key in Taking Care Of You. Simply put, any area of our life where we focus our awareness will grow us from the inside out.

To that end, decluttering is a form of taking care of ourselves, believe it or not. By accepting your own 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, you began a journey towards improving the quality of your life from the outside in. Removing a single piece of clutter each day doesn't completely clear an entire life's worth of clutter, especially mental clutter. However, it does begin to grow an awareness inside you about self-worth, creating a life of abundance versus scarcity, etc.

Developing an enhanced awareness of yourself is what the Taking Care Of You blog (affectionately known as TCOY) is all about. Putting yourself in the line of priority, and right in front, is not selfish thinking but rather just thinking proactively. There is no better person to know, understand or believe in than you.

Believe Me, It Needs Reinforcement
I chose my blog's title to emphasize a concept I hold to be vital. Unfortunately, taking care of yourself isn’t something that is likely to come naturally. Much like the flight safety announcement telling you that in the event of a crash you must first put on your own oxygen mask and then help others, the concept of taking care of us first needs reminding, as it is most important.

As we say over at TCOY, i
t’s time to focus on...

Taking Care Of You

...because you can do it better than anyone else!


Recent Posts:
Taking Care Of You (TCOY)
Quality Relationships (I Will Be Someone For You)

Decluttering: A How-To

Decluttering physical items is actually a simple process. We, the do'ers, are what make it difficult.

Always Start In 3D
Define your area -- a drawer, a closet, a 1 ft space in a room, etc. (zoom in on your target to help from being overwhelmed by whatever else may be nearby or that will detract your focus from your defined area, i.e. more clutter, an area that you don't like for other specific reasons, etc.)

Determine categories to use for sorting the things stored in that area (a specific use that makes sense in the area, memorabilia/keepsake, homeless object that didn't belong in that area, etc.) and create a gathering spot for items in that category (i.e. a box or basket, a clean spot on the floor, a shelf, etc.)

Decide which category each piece in your defined area belongs into & sort the items accordingly by placing them in the gathering spot. (Deciding comes from a position of feeling/being powerful over your stuff, instead of being overpowered by it.)

A fantastic bit of advice that I have incorporated into my own life came from Alex Fayle at Someday Syndrome, in the Unclutter guest post Instructions for decluttering your home (in less than 500 words).

"Use the sorting time to reminisce about the objects — don’t make any decisions at this point. Allow the emotions to come up and clear themselves out so that when it comes to the streamlining stage you are free from the emotional ties and can make more objective decisions about them."

And...Action!
The final step in decluttering is Action, instead of Reaction.

Many of the reactions we encounter when decluttering relate to negative feelings...(feeling) that money was wasted, (feeling) guilt about the item, (feeling) unhappiness about our home & personal belongings, (feeling) overwhelmed by it all in general, etc.

To gain power over your stuff, instead of being owned by it, we need to focus on equating decluttering with Action instead, and positive Action at that.

So, what positive Action are you going to take regarding these objects?

Ask yourself the basic decluttering questions.

Do I want this?

Do I use it?

Do I love this?

Do I need it?

If you can’t say yes to any of them, then you have your answer: it is clutter to you. As Alex says in the above article, "Life is too short to fill out our spaces with things we’re indifferent to."

Once all items have been put into a category, it's time to get everything to its home.

Trash
Gather those items and take them from your working area first thing; preferably all the way to the trash can.

Donation Worthy Goods
Put all items together in a box or bag and put them in your car. The next time you are out and about, plan a stop at the local donation center of your choice.

Items to Keep
Now that there are less items in the area, the items you are keeping can be better organized and stored/used. Make it so.

Or, quite possibly, where the item was before was not the best home for it. Was it "homeless" and not stored with other like items? Was it there just because it always has been?

There are many questions I could pose such as these, but I hope that during this process you are learning to formulate your own questions in your mind. The Action will come from your answers.

It's Just An Object
Always remind yourself, especially in the beginning of any decluttering project, that you want to discontinue reacting to your stuff.

Deciding on your Action, and taking it, will empower you in ways that lead to a much more positive role in your own life. A side benefit is that each action fires up your Motivation Meter as well, and that also creates a positive effect in your life. The accumulation of positive Action will create balance in your life, including ownership over your stuff.

I encourage to begin to examine your life in terms of Reaction vs. Action. You may be surprised to realize the effects reach farther than just clutter!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Day 365

It's here, it's here. Today is the official last day of the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge! We made it!!

I can't begin to thank you enough for what everyone's involvement in my little challenge has done to propel me during this whole journey. It's also led to me deciding to continue blogging (more details in a later post), which I find quite amusing, since I only started this blog due to the insistence of a friend!

Thinking back about my 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, it's actually a bit difficult to remember when it was so hard to let go of things. Most times now I rarely even have to question myself to make a final decision. I am very pleased with all of the past clutter that I've finally evicted. I've also done really well at keeping current clutter from entering our home, or from having a long stay anyways.

My official last day was Wednesday, February 18th but I wanted to wait and celebrate our official last day. Your 365th day may not be here yet. It's still OK to celebrate with us; we are all on the same journey together. When your 365th day arrives, please be sure to post on here and let us know so we can share in congratulating you!

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Focus Challenge - Month 11

Over the last month I have been thinking about February 22nd, which will be the official end of the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge. I have already heard from some challengers that they are signing on for another 365 days. Way to go!

To me, decluttering doesn't end. We all consume. We all buy. We all have to decide what stays and what goes, because there is always more clutter trying to make its way into your space and into your mind.

Only you can decide how you will proceed after February 22nd. Has this been fun while it lasted and you are ready to put your efforts into a different area? Has decluttering become routine and you can't imagine not regularly decluttering? Have you run out of things to declutter? Did you finally begin addressing mental clutter and don't want to stop?

With a month remaining, I want to use our final Focus Challenge for introspection.

1) Think of the 7 pieces of clutter that you purged that were the most difficult, the most meaningful, the most inspiring (i.e., decluttering it led to other things being decluttered that had a fabulous effect on you or your life), etc.

2) For each item, write the name of the item on a piece of paper in the very center of the page. Draw a circle around it. Then, develop a mind map. To do so, draw a line out from the bubble with emotions/feelings you associated with the item. Then, from each of those feelings, draw branches out from it relating to how you felt when you possessed the item and later once you let it go.

It is my hope that our remaining Focus Challenge will provide insight to you on your clutter. Each item that you let go of during this challenge was only a thing, an item, an object, stuff. The emotion we attached to them (aka mental clutter) was the part that was the most difficult to purge.

Gaining this insight will aid us in the days to come by, hopefully, preventing more stuff from having an advantage over us by tapping into our emotions. As you might have heard before, you are not your stuff. You own your stuff; it does not own you...or, at least it shouldn't.

Thank you for taking this challenge with me. I greatly appreciate what I have learned along the way. I hope this journey has also been wonderful for you as well.


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