So, you've decided it's time to get rid of the clutter in your home and life. Maybe you've decided to launch a "campaign" something like my "1000 things" in which you plan in a certain period of time to eliminate all the excess from your home. Or maybe you are planning on a more little-by-little approach. Either is fine. Both will work, if you keep at it. But the question that is often in our minds is "Where does it end?" Will there come a time when there is no more clutter, and I don't have to declutter anymore?

Well, yes and no. If you stop bringing more stuff in and keep working at it, then yes, you can get to a point where your house is (mostly) free from excess. But, without continuing effort, it won't stay that way for long!

If you live with other people. If you ever bring something new home. If you have friends who send you gifts. If you read magazines or do puzzles. If you buy any item that comes with packaging. If you lose or gain weight, or your kids grow. In other words, if you live life!....clutter will happen!

But it does not have to become that overwhelming, all consuming monster it once was, ever again. The secret to preventing that from happening is some new habits and routines, such as these:
1. Quick maintenance - after you've decluttered a space or a room, you need to sweep through it from time to time, quickly removing any new items of clutter that may have been deposited there. This may just be part of your regular housework routines - as you tidy, dust or vacuum, pick up and deal with unnecessary items as you go.
2. Regular deeper sessions - once a week or once a month, go back through one cupboard, drawer, shelf, room - whatever works for you - and check to make sure nothing there has become outdated, outsized, worn out, or no longer needed. If so, eliminate! If you've already decluttered thoroughly, and you keep doing this regularly, it won't take anywhere near as long to do as the first time!
3. Have a place to put stuff you don't need easily, and use it - to me this means a bin in the foyer for recyclables, a bag in a handy cupboard for clothes to pass on, and an accessible box for things headed to the thrift store. As soon as the bag or box fills, or once every week or two, take those items out to the car and make a point of dropping them off when you go into town.
4. Teach your kids good habits and thought patterns - it's ok to let go of stuff you don't need any more, where to put such things, and to think about where they are going to keep anything new they bring home (is there room, do they really need it, what will they get rid of when they add this?)
5. Adjust your own thoughts and habits too! Do I REALLY need this? And remember, it's ok to pass something on as soon as you've finished using it. Just because that was a good magazine, doesn't mean you need to keep it forever! Don't allow yourself to just bring random things home - it needs to be something you need or truly want, and there needs to be a place for it.

A good rule-of-thumb is to take 15 mins every day to move through your home looking for and getting rid of clutter.

Last week we finally had a nice, sunny day, and I was able to put my collected items out by the road. I put out about 7 boxes of stuff, and 5 hours later when I packed the rest up, there was only 1.5 boxes worth left.

Since then, I've done a little more decluttering, but I've decided it's time to wrap up my 1000 Things campaign - after all, I've exceeded that goal, and there are other things in life that need my greater focus right now.

In the past week, I've added another 58 items to my give aways - including clothing, jigsaws, a radio, binder, wastebasket, crockpot, muzzle, craft things and more, and added a couple more items of furniture to the sell list.

Due to the fact we're now into wintery weather, it's no longer practical for me to put things out by the road, so all remaining items are going to be dropped off to a local charity tomorrow, and I'm going to focus over the next couple of weeks on advertising and selling the remaining books etc I've earmarked for sale. If they don't sell by then, they will also go to the charity.

As I've now decluttered all the rooms in my house, as well as a couple of sheds, I feel pretty good about what I've accomplished. There are more books and DVDs that will go in time, but most of those will be for sale, and there's no point pulling them off the shelves until I've cleared away the ones already for sale.

I also need to spend some time catching up on some other projects - finishing setting up my new paperwork system, catching up on ironing and mending, and so on - these things and more may be the subject of future blog posts.

All in all, despite the fact that eliminating 1000 things seemed like a huge goal, I've got rid of over 1200 items over the last 6 weeks or so, and while my house looks less cluttered, it certainly doesn't look empty! My family are amazed that we could let so much go and not even notice the difference in any negative way - a fact that has inspired them to keep letting go of more of their own stuff!

I hope you've enjoyed my 1000 Things campaign, and have been inspired to let go of some of your own excess!

If you desire to get rid of the clutter in your home, here's an important tip: Stop Adding To Your Stuff!

One of the reasons most of us struggle to get around to dealing with all the stuff we already have, is that we keep adding to it, rather than subtracting from it. We pick up bargains at yard sales and second hand stores, buy more than we need from thrift stores, and get items on sale that look attractive to us. If you’re a homeschooler like me, you’re probably a bookaholic too, and constantly bringing home new finds!

Here’s what I want you to do - make a commitment for a certain period of time (at least 3-6 months, preferably one year) to not buy or acquire ANYTHING except basic essentials, and those only when you truly need them! Half measures won’t do - if you tell yourself you’ll get LESS stuff, then you’ll always find an excuse to get this and that. If you make it a firm NO! then it will be easier to be strong.

And how are you going to get by while you’re not getting more?? Two things -

• You’ll learn to be content with what you have. “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6

• You’ll use up or make use of what you already have. There was a saying during the Great Depression:

“Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do or
Do Without”

Imagine actually reading all the books on your shelves. Or using all those wonderful home school materials you’ve collected over the years but not actually used, instead of buying more. Imagine actually looking at all the recipe books you’ve got, and weeding out the ones you don’t need, instead of acquiring more. Think what it will be like to use (or discard) all those patterns, craft ideas and recipes you’ve collected and hoarded. To use the clothing you have to come up with what you need, before looking for new ones. Think of actually playing all the games your family owns, doing the jigsaws, working together on crafts with what you have.

Imagine finally, once and for all, actually dealing with all your stuff and getting rid of all your clutter. It won’t happen until you stop adding to it!

Suggested “Rules”

Here’s what I suggest for the “no adding stuff” period:

• Do not buy or allow into your house any do-dads, knick-knacks or “this would look good in/on my___________” items whatsoever! Make do with what you’ve got in the meantime. Remind yourself the day will come when you house is free of clutter and mostly tidy, and THEN you can get some of those wonderful items you want to make your house look pretty.

• Do not get any more books!! Stay away from second hand book stores and other grounds of temptation. Unsubscribe from the second hand books and curriculum email loops. (Ouch!!) The ONLY exception is purchases of specific, pre-planned curriculum for your home schooled kids or other students that you really need! If you don’t already have plans in place to buy certain items (such as if you are following a specific graded curriculum), then don’t buy anything! Use what you have - come on, I know you have lots of stuff! Get out those unit studies and good books you brought way back and actually use them. If it turns out they aren’t suitable, then sell them! Then, use your library, and free internet resources when you do need extras. But see how much you can actually get done using what you already have on your shelves!!

• For the period of your commitment, you may not cut out any recipes or craft patterns, or collect any papers that “might come in handy one day”. NONE! Until you’ve used, sorted or got rid of all such items you already have stashed, you are not to add to them. Don’t worry, you won’t really miss anything important!!!!

• Avoid garage or yard sales, ebay, sales of any kind, second hand stores and thrift stores! You are NOT in the market for ANY miscellaneous “useful” items of any kind. Be strong!! Only pre-planned purchases for needed items may be made. No extras at all!!

• “Needed” means items pertaining to the basics of life - such as food, clothing and shelter. Plan to buy only the items you REALLY need in these categories, after seeing if you can make do with what you have. Plan to avoid any other spending altogether on “things”. Your bank balance will be much healthier too!!
  

• No purchases of puzzle books etc - use up what you have, or do free crosswords out the newspaper or online. Save your money; reduce clutter!
• When you do need to get something new, make it a rule to immediately get rid of at least one similar item - preferably 2 or 3. So if you buy a new pair of shoes, immediately throw out the old pair, or if you're the type that has many pairs of shoes, select 2-3 pairs you don't really need and let them go.
  

There will be the odd exception to the no acquiring rule that is acceptable - when it's something you've long needed to get or replace to truly make your life better; usually it's an item to replace a damaged or worn out essential piece of home hardware (furniture and equipment). For example, I made an exception for myself recently - I've been looking for a better computer/office desk for 3-4 years, and spotted the perfect one outside a thrift store as I was walking past for only $40. I got them to put it on hold, wrote down the measurements, went home and checked it would fit where I wanted, thought about it overnight and then the next day went and bought it. When I put in the office, I immediately advertised the old desk for sale, and I also identified two more desks from the house that I could get rid of. This new desk perfectly fits what we need, and improves our lives, making things easier in several ways. Considering the bargain price, it would have made no sense to pass up this opportunity because of a "rule" - so do use your common sense. Like all "rules" it's purpose is to improve your life, not make it miserable!

So, how about you? Ready to commit yourself to a "no new stuff" for a period of time? Make a simple poster/contract, fill it in, and post it on the fridge where your family can also see it. Or print my one, and use that. Download HERE.

The fourth week of my 1000 Things Challenge was just that - a challenge! A week full of bad weather, injury and illness, as well as other things going on. I managed to get some decluttering done - focusing on items in my "storage shed" - a place where I keep things like preserving jars, fabric, extra bits and pieces, and which currently has to double as a garden shed as I don't have one. It was good to give it a clean out, and in the process I added 30 items to the give away piles - 2 insulated lunch bags, 1 stacking stationary container, 1 jelly mold, 3 small baskets, 1 pack of scrapbooking supplies, 2 pencil cases, 1 tablecloth, 3 plastic plates, 1 sprinkler, 1 bird house, 6 candles, 1 dynaband, 4 packs of Newspapers in Education resources, 1 pack of ANZAC photos and resources, 1 office chair (not pictured) and 1 roman blind (not pictured).

At the same time, 121 items got added to the for sale items - 1 automatic pet feeder, 1 set of caligraphy gear, 1 box full of caligraphy books and resources, 21 pieces of dinnerware, and 97 homeschool workbooks and answer books - though I strongly suspect the vast majority of those will end up transferred to the give away pile after I've sold what I can.

So that brings the grand total of items eliminated over the last four weeks to 1140!

Constant rainy weather has prevented me from putting give away items out by the kerb, but I'm still gathering them up into boxes, ready for when I can give them away. In the 3rd week of my "campaign" to eliminate the unnecessary from our home, I identified another 76 items to give away, and 74 to sell - a total of 150 for the week, and 989 so far over the last 3 weeks!

From this point out, I'm going to need to change the way I do this each day. Because I have other areas in my life I also need to focus on, I've decided to schedule in 1 hour each day for decluttering, and rather than just focusing on items to give away or sell, I need to focus on completely decluttering or dealing with a particular part of the house in that time. So some days it may mean I eliminate a lot of trash or recycling, but don't add much to the give away/sell totals. And that's just fine, and probably natural at this point in the process - the initial easy-to-deal-with areas (piles, boxes, surfaces) have been gone over once. Now I need to do things like finish reorganizing my filing and paperwork, dealing with piles of mending and ironing, work my way through cupboards and shelves more slowly and make more considered decisions about what they contain and so forth.

Eliminating clutter and excess is very like peeling an onion - there are layers. The outer layer is the obvious stuff lying around, or those things already waiting for you to deal with them in boxes and so forth. The next layer is giving each room a good clean up, perusing all shelves and drawers for unneeded items as you go. And then comes the deeper stuff, bit by bit, layer by layer.

How about you? Are you decluttering? Got any comments or questions? Leave a comment

When I was a teenager, I used to have a poster on my bedroom wall of a beautiful lion lying with one front paw over the other, captioned "Every time I put my best foot forward, someone steps on it." It can feel a lot like that when one decides to "get organised" or start following a schedule. Almost guaranteed, just when you think you've worked out the perfect schedule, someone throws up on it. Or "life happens" - a sudden illness or injury by anyone in your family will throw your schedule off, the car breaks down, the cat gets stuck up a tree, the toilet backs up...any one of a myriad possibilities. And it can make you groan and ask yourself "WHY do I even bother??"

So what is the point of a schedule? And is it really a useful, workable tool in a busy life full of unpredictable people and events?

The point of a schedule is not to program your life down to every minute. Its purpose is to give a guiding structure to your days - a chosen focus for a given time period. It's designed to be a tool that helps you get more done, not a task-master that slaps you around and makes you feel inadequate! Here's how I come up with a schedule:
1. I start by thinking about all the major focuses of my life right now - what am I trying to get done? What balls am I juggling? Life is full of seasons - there is constant change as kids get older, needs and desires and interests change, health gets better or worse, certain projects are being worked on etc. You can't create one schedule and expect it to carry you through the rest of your life. You probably need a new one at least every 6 months, or if certain projects are for a shorter period of time, then even more often.
2. Once I've made a list of my current obligations and ambitions, I ask myself if ALL of them are important enough to deserve my focus right now? Could some be dropped, or delayed? And then I ask myself, for the ones remaining, approx how big a block of time do I realistically need to focus on them each day?
3. I start outlining a schedule - what things serve as essential framework? I need to get enough sleep - when am I going to go to bed and get up? Are there fixed daily commitments I need to allow for (eg getting someone off to work or school, or a part time job or course)? What other things are important to me to make time for? Daily prayer and Bible study? Personal exercise? Housework? Plot these in.
4. Now look at all those main focuses you listed  - where do those blocks of time best fit in? Can you fit them all in every day, or do some need to alternate? Do you need to adjust how much time you allowed for them? We all have only 24 hours in a day, a good portion of which needs to be set aside for rest, eating, self care and family responsibilities. It makes no sense to then expect we can fit in 14 hours worth of work or commitments in the remaining, say, 8 hours of available time! And this is one of the main benefits of creating a schedule - it helps you be more realistic!
5. I keep fiddling and adjusting, dropping or curtailing things until I have a schedule that seems workable and realistic, with enough breathing space in it not to turn me into a crazy, frustrated madwoman!
6. Most important, I acknowledge to myself that days are seldom going to go according to plan, and that this schedule can and MUST be flexible! So why bother with one in the first place? Because.....

• With a schedule in place, generally more will get done than if one just "flies by the seat of one's pants," even on those days when disaster strikes.
• A schedule gives you a focus - you know what you're needing to work on in a given time. Yes, you definitely lay aside your agenda when a child or husband needs you, but the rest of the time, you know what you are supposed to be focused on, and can train yourself not to get sidetracked by other things  - email for example.
• When interruptions have come and gone, you can get back on track more easily. If a big chunk has been taken out of my day, I then chose whether to ignore the things left out and just pick up at the current time on my schedule, or to go back to important things, and adjust the rest of the plan for the day.
• The process of creating a schedule has the very desirable effect of making us take a realistic look at our lives and what we are expecting to fit into them, and discover whether it's possible, or we're setting ourselves up for a sense of failure. Once, many years ago when my children were small, I made a list of everything I felt I needed to get done every day, with approximate, realistic times of how long it took. I discovered that my days included some 32 hours of responsibilities, for every 24 hours period. This did two things for me - it stopped me feeling so guilty that I wasn't "getting it all done," and it caused me to adjust my expectations of myself!

So, let me give you a real life example:
This past weekend I realized I needed a new schedule to help me better manage my current aims and responsibilities. I have several things I'm focused on right now:

• Keeping up on housework
• Making sure I set aside time to spend in Bible study and prayer
• My 1000 Things decluttering goal - until the end of May - including giving things away, and advertising items for sale as well as posting sold books etc.
  
• Blogging about the decluttering, and also maintaining my gardening blog
• A Permaculture Design Course I'm enrolled in - it's online and from home, but needs a couple of hours a day study, until the end of July.
• Homeschooling my remaining two students - they learn mostly independently now, but I need to be present and available to help with problems, administer tests etc
• Keeping on top of all the administrative tasks of running a household and my husband's business.
• Doing the gardening and homesteading that provides much of our food etc
  

It took a bit of juggling to figure out how to fit all these things in, along with the other usual responsibilities of having a family. I had to acknowledge that the amount of time I wanted to allow for some of these things would simply not fit into the schedule, and so I had to chose to reduce the allocated time - knowing that it's better to do SOMETHING often than to wait for "enough" time and end up doing little or nothing at all towards a particular goal!

I finally came up with a workable schedule for the next few months. It's not perfect, and will certainly need tweaking as I go along. Of course, it will only work for those days when I'm mostly at home. But it does help me get more done.

I started using this schedule on Monday, and was doing well, until 9:50am when one of my daughters fell off a chair in the room she is renovating for her sister and impaled her foot on a crowbar. (There's something about Mondays and schedules....). The next several hours were spent in first aid, doctors etc....BUT despite this, my schedule had already helped me get much more done that I otherwise would have by that time of the morning, the majority of the important items on my running to-do list for the day were already crossed off, and when the situation was over, I knew exactly what I needed to do to get the rest taken care of, and where to pick up with my schedule!

Yes, I think a schedule is definitely a useful, workable tool, even in a busy, crazy life full of the unpredictable - so long as you use it to help you think and plan, then hold it loosely day to day.

Due to a lot of unexpected interruptions last week, I wasn't able to keep up with daily blogging about my 1000 Things, though I was able to declutter most days. So here I'm combining the items assigned to give away or sell over three days of last week.

50 items were added to the give away boxes, including: 3 books, 2 sets of kids writing paper, 1 DVD, 12 CD cases, 2 blank DVD-R discs, 1 set origami papers, 1 set of invitations/envelopes, 2 audio CDs, 2 calendars, 1 knick knack, 7 post-it pads, 1 bookmark, 1 notepad, a bag of gift tags, 1 CD holder, 1 notebook, 1 compendium, 1 homeschooling manual, 1 tray and 8 highlighters.

12 DVDs, 6 Videos and 45 Books joined the for sale items, for a total of 63.

Yesterday was a day of disappointments. Not earth-shattering things, but just quite a number of them.

Our cat managed to get into a rabbit cage and killed the father of this cute family pictured - he looked much like the mother rabbit on the right. Disappointing for my son, who has started breeding these Netherland Dwarfs. Boo-hoo

A huge window which hadn't been re-secured after it's look-alikes were moved to begin construction of my new glasshouse blew over in the wind, smashing down on a pile of other windows, breaking several. Sigh

I'd JUST got to the really good part of my new book to find 50 pages missing...a printing error. Doh!

The garden has been mocking me with all the jobs I haven't gotten done in the last month or so - especially the harvesting that needs to happen before we get frosts, and the planting that should have happened before it got cold. Sigh

The lady who asked me to hold a desk she wanted to buy from me changed her mind but didn't bother to let me know. Ah well.

During the night there was a huge crash from the kitchen....my darling husband dealt with it....discovered this morning that the glass lid of my favorite casserole dish had been knocked off the dish, which was resting on the stove, by a cat and smashed all over the floor. Took me 3 or 4 years to find that replacement lid in the first place, after the original broke. Sigh. That will teach me to go to bed without doing the dishes, just this once, since we got home at midnight.

And so on. As I said, nothing earth-shattering, but when a day is filled with a procession of these little disappointments, it's easy to become discouraged! And doesn't the enemy like to use these little bumps in life's road to shove a few more darts at our minds and hearts?
"Hah! Why did you even bother getting out of bed this morning?"
"See, nothing ever goes right for you!"
"If God REALLY loved you, this kind of stuff wouldn't happen"
"You're so behind, it's all your fault. And you'll never catch up!"
"You are such a failure! If you'd only.....you could have prevented....."
"And don't forget, you don't have any money to buy another....."
"What's the point? Why keep struggling? Why don't you just give up?"

And suddenly, a few disappointments can become the tipping point that spills over into frustration, anger, blame (towards self and/or God and others), depression, sadness...even suicidal thoughts, especially if it feels like these kinds of things seem to happen all the time....

And yet....
"But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us...." (2 Cor 7:6)

God loves us, and loves to encourage us, and there is no better place to find his words of encouragement that in his Word!

"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear [sisters], stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (I Cor 15:55-58)

God never promised there would not be troubles, trials and disappointments in this world - in fact Jesus specifically warned that there would be: "I have told you these things that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33)

Therein is the contrast - yep, this world is full of troubles. Things can and will go wrong. But we can take heart from the fact that Jesus has overcome this world - and this world is not all there is! It is but a temporary situation, a temporary dwelling place, until that wonderful day when Jesus comes back, and we get to dwell with him in glory forever!

Romans 8:28-39 is a must read passage if you're in need of encouragement! Here are some highlights...
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.....What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?......Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?.....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us....nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God!" (Emphasis mine)

God loves you and me sooooo much! Neither the troubles of this world, or the lies of the enemy will ever change that. The Psalms are a great place to find encouragement too. Psalm 10: 17 assures us "You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry."

I thank God that, no matter what each day holds, he loves me, and is with me. There may come disappointments and trials, but he is with me always, and will never leave nor forsake me. None of these things can truly take me down, because even in days filled with disappointments, there are always blessings too, if we have eyes to see them.

Yesterday, our new neighbour was finally able to come and say hi, and we enjoyed some interesting conversation with him. My son was blessed with an extra day's work in town. The baby my daughter cares for here slept well at nap time, and was particularly happy the rest of the day. My husband and I were able to go out for dessert and a movie last night. And then there are the many blessings of a warm fire, food to eat, family and home.

Put in perspective, yesterday's disappointments were really nothing. Or perhaps they were something - an opportunity to practice the right point of view - of seeing life through the eyes of faith and the lens of God's Word, so that when the really difficult trials come along, we already have the right habits and understandings in place to help us through those trials.

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." 2 Thess 2:16-17

And remember, one day soon...
"He will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things [will have] passed away" Rev 21:4

Amidst everything else, I only managed to find 6 items to add to the give aways - a video, a DVD, and 4 things from the kitchen drawers which I cleaned out. I actually pulled out each drawer, emptied it, cleaned it, and then put things back better. I even cleaned out the inside of the cabinet where the drawers go - and found a couple of small items I'd been looking for that had fallen down the back of the drawers.

Tomorrow is a whole new day....and His mercies are new every morning!

Michelangelo is famous for several things, among them some amazing marble sculptures. He is famous for saying "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." When Michelangelo looked at a block of marble, he saw within it the sculpture it could become, and then chipped away everything else until what he had imagined was revealed.

Maybe we need to make like Michelangelo - instead of looking around our homes and seeing all the clutter and confusion, perhaps we should pause and imagine how our home COULD be; how we would love it to be. And then simply chip away at the rest, removing what does not fit, until we are left with a place of peace and beauty.

I ended up needing to take last week off from my 1000 things decluttering, due to having relatives staying, and also caring for a toddler. So this week I'm taking up where I left off - doing 5 days a week instead of 4 will soon catch me up.

Today I sorted out our box of computer-related cords, and also a box of games. I found 20 items to give away - 3 DVDs, 8 card packs, 1 set of dominos, 1 mouse, 1 webcam, 1 internet cord, 1 wireless internet booster, 1 set of cordless phone chargers, 1 temperature gauge, and 1 plastic kitchen container set.

When I sorted out the box of computer-related cords and stuff, I used a tip I'd seen recently to use toilet roll tubes to hold each individual cord. I placed them so both ends of the cords can be seen, making it quick to identify which one is wanted without lots of rummaging and messing things up. The before and after photos are below.

I also found 11 more items to sell - 9 books, 1 game, and 1 set of jigsaws.

I have also moved 5 books and 1 video that were previously in the for sale pile to the give aways.

The weather has been absolutely foul, with very heavy rain, so I'm not currently able to put things out by the road. When it fines up, there will be lots of good stuff for people to pick from!

Do you know what strikes me when I look at the photos of the things we have been giving away? It really IS just all "stuff"! Clutter. None of it is important.

Have you ever noticed that if you sweep a messy floor and then scoop up the small pile of dirt and bits and bobs into the trash, it doesn't take much room in the bin - but spread out on the floor, a small amount of trash can mess up a whole big area?

It's like that with stuff - take a box full of unnecessary clutter, and toss it in all directions - instantly you have a whole room looking messy and unpleasant. Conversely, gathering up a box full of clutter and getting rid of it can transform a messy room into a much more pleasant place.

In this second week of my "Letting Go of 1000 Things," I have given away another 174 items, and earmarked 99 to sell, bringing the grand total of items let go of in the last two weeks to 839! There are still 6 weeks to go - be interesting to see what the end total is. Will it get harder to find 20-30 items a day to get rid of? We will see!

My youngest daughter was "sure" that she would never get rid of anything. "No problem," said I, "But don't forget you have to tidy your room before you can go stay at your friend's place these holidays." She cleaned up her room on Friday - and found that she did, indeed, have quite a lot of things she doesn't use or want.

I spent the day on a general tidy up of the main living spaces, and together with my daughter's discards, I threw out some things - grand total 65 items to give away, including: 3 photo albums, 1 CD case, 1 hot pad, 5 items of clothing, 1 hat, 1 pair of shoes (brand new), 5 ornaments, 1 headband, 1 fur collar, 2 mini books, 2 hair accessories, 6 pieces of jewellery, 1 wallet, 1 radio, 1 bucket, 1 stamp album, 2 bamboo boxes, 2 hat boxes, 6 audio CDs, 1 CD rom, 3 DVDs, 11 books, 3 bookmarks, 1 moneybox, 1 bell, 1 gift box, 1 music box.

I also decided to declutter one bookcase - this one is "my bookcase" - the one where I keep books of most interest to me, including gardening books and magazines, housekeeping, parenting etc books, and books I've been meaning to read/preview and find a home for. It has been overflowing for some time! I prefer bookcases to only hold as many books as comfortably fit on the shelves, not stacked 2 deep.

So I cleared the shelves.......

Much better! I still need to go through the gardening magazines, keep what I need (I find these particular magazines an even more valuable source of info that my books), and let go of the rest, but time did not permit today.

42 books and 10 DVDs added to the for sale box.

In the past, I've always found the best way to motivate family to get on board with what I'm doing is to NOT force them to take part or get rid of anything. I just carry on lightening the load in the parts of the house I am primarily responsible for, talking to them along the way about what I'm doing and why, and how much easier it is to clean once there is less stuff to deal with. Before long, they usually realise that it's also easier for THEM to clean up their own rooms if there is less in them, and they start decluttering their own stuff. On Thursday of the second week, one of my daughters decided to clean up her room, and in the process she brought to me a box full of stuff she doesn't want any more, a box full of things she didn't think belonged to her, and a bag full of trash.

Between my daughter's decluttering and my own, this day we added 48 items to the give away pile: 8 pieces of clothing, 2 pairs of shoes, 1 stamp album, 1 musical stand, 1 jewellery container, 1 baby front pack, 5 videos, 1 DVD, 14 books, 1 ornament, 1 bag of beads, 1 book marker, 1 wallet, 1 bracelet, 1 stencil set, 1 inflatable ball, 1 bottle warmer, 1 Christmas stocking, 1 bag holder and 4 educational posters.

Unfortunately it poured with rain all day and I wasn't possible for me to put things out by the road. The school term holidays begin tomorrow and last two weeks, so I will be boxing up give-aways for now, and probably at the end of the holidays I will have a "free yard sale" in my garage. It is not wise to put things by the road during the holidays as some of the teens who hang out at the skate park across the road would take things and make destructive messes with them.

Here's another small quote from "In Celebration of Simplicity" that I've been mulling over:

Often when we read books or instructions on decluttering, we are told to ask ourselves this question:

"Do you love it and/or use is?" and if the answer is yes, then it's a keeper.

Now, I tell people to use that question too, and it's one I ask myself. It's a great first step, and will weed out quite a lot of the dross.

But I have found, going only on this question, that there is usually still way too much stuff left...though of course to be honest, we usually let that question mean "Do I use it now or anticipate using it in the near future?" - if we stuck to only what we do use NOW, honestly and forcefully, we'd get rid of a lot more stuff!

However, maybe we should be also asking ourselves "Do I want space and freedom MORE than I want THIS thing?"

What do I mean by space and freedom?

I mean space in our physical surroundings - so that shelves are not overflowing and difficult to dust, piles aren't stacked everywhere, things aren't slowing us down and tripping us up. It's easy to find an item you need when you don't have many items, and they're all where they should be, easily accessible without moving a ton of other stuff first! Relaxing!

I mean space in our minds - minds free from "shoulda, coulda, oughta" thoughts - the cleaning you should do (because it's done - and it doesn't take long when the clutter is gone), the projects/books/movies you could do/read/watch (because you let go of most of them - you wanted freedom more!), the nagging, unending feeling that there's a ton of things you ought to do, if only you had time (because now you DO have time, but all that remains are the actually important, and you can get them done easily). Peace!

I mean freedom to be and to do all that God intends for you. The ability to have a regular quiet time. Time to dress up for your husband occasionally, or plan a special date. Time (and energy!) to play with your children, read them stories, or go for a walk and stop to smell the roses/chase a cricket/lie on your back and look for cloud pictures. Time to enjoy homeschooling your kids, or to get creative organising those (few) things you chose to keep. Availability to help with a meal for someone who is in need, have a coffee with a friend, earn a few dollars using your gifts and talents from home. Blessed spaciousness and freedom!

Do you really want ALL those DVDs and videos so you can watch them again one day - or do you want the space more?

Do you need to keep ALL those books on the shelves, or do you want the space and freedom more?

That craft project you started 6 years ago, and mean to finish one day - how much do you REALLY want it? Or do you want the freedom more?

Those "useful" gadgets in your kitchen - do you want to keep all of them? Or could you get by with less - and enjoy the added space, and the ease of getting something out or putting something away that would result?

The clothes stuffing your closet and drawers - do you need to keep them all, more than you need to just chose enough to cover your body each day, and enjoy the freedom instead?

All those little bits and pieces stuck into drawers, piles, baskets - those bits and bobs you mean to sort out and put away properly...somewhere....what if you spread it all out in view, gave yourself 5 minutes to pick out anything truly essential (the chuck key for your husband's essential drill, for example, or the only key to the shed) and then just swept the rest into a bin and tossed it? Do you want to spend those hours trying to sort and find homes for all that stuff - or do you want the freedom more?

Me - I want the freedom more!

Now, for those of you who can't even comprehend letting go to that extent just yet, I do understand! I think it's a process, something of a layer-by-layer thing, to get to the point where you're just ready to let go. At least for a lot of people. And that's ok. Start by identifying what you really love and/or need, and eliminate the rest.

But for some people, you just need to get where you're sick of living this way - of running in circles, overwhelmed by stuff. To where you glimpse a better way - and you WANT IT MORE - more than all that stuff. I had a friend like that. A lovely lady with the biggest heart, she had gone through a lot of struggles - but the thing really overwhelming her was the state of her house. She had clutter and stuff everywhere, and no idea where to even begin. She also suffered tremendous dust allergies, and every time she decided to do something about it, she'd no sooner get started picking stuff up, than the dust would start off the allergies, and she'd end up in bed for 3 days, too sick to do anything. She finally got to a point where she was willing to do anything to be free - and I stepped in to help. I got her to sit in another room while I scooped up and roughly sorted everything in one room at a time - taking things to her in groups for her to decide what to keep and what not to. She was so ready to let go, she would just tell me to bin nearly everything. We kept her kids essential current clothes, favourite toys and books, and pretty much tossed everything else. Most of the games and DVDs went, with just a handful kept. Anything ripped, torn, stained or damaged was history. All the stuff stored in the garage for "one day" was tossed.

It took one week to work through her house. At the end of each day, I loaded donation items into my van and dropped them off at the Salvation Army. Meanwhile, we boxed or bagged up trash, and piled it outside. At the end of the week, we borrowed a large truck (I'm talking an industrial truck, not a pick-up) from my husband's employer and we took 2 truck loads, piled as high as we could get it, to the dump. As we got each room cleared, we arranged the remaining furniture, making up beds, setting the kept items out nicely. When the kids came home the day we finished the boy's room, they had been apprehensive, but were delighted to find they had SPACE and could enjoy their things - we had set up an art desk for the older boy, with all his supplies laid out nicely. Instead of blobbing on the couch watching the tv, the boys spend HOURS happily occupied in their now clean, nearly empty room. And the same thing happened when we got the girl's room finished too.

And best of all, with all that stuff gone, it was now easy to clean her house - and my friend began to do just that every day, never again allowing herself or her kids to just leave things lying around. She knew what it was like to live the other way - and she wanted freedom more!

Most notable was the dramatic improvements in the kid's mental, emotional, academic and social well being after we emptied the house and created physical space and freedom!

Stuff? Or freedom? I want freedom more!

On Wednesday I gave away another 41 items, some of which had come from decluttering my bedroom the day before. They included: 1 mirror on a stand, 1 basket, 2 sunhats, 1 letter older, 3 books, 6 DVDs, 7 videos, 10 CDs and 10 audio cassettes.

I also identified 47 items to sell - 8 videos, 1 book, 1 advent calendar and 37 readers, but I have a feeling most of these are going to end up in the give aways too.

I have family coming to stay from this weekend for 5 days, so I'm currently tidying up, including some basic decluttering as I go - but after they have left, I will go back around and make some deeper choices. I definitely want freedom more than all this stuff - even the "good stuff"!