Thanks to Cindy’s post at www.365lessthings.com (which I love, and happy to have ‘worked out’ how to get the emailed posts now that I can’t read the blog at work), I’m inspired for another LIST!
She mentions categories of clutter, and I’m going to go through each one, and see which I could work on more. Then I’ll share my little list of identified things to thin out
– things from put off decisions: a little bit, I do have a ‘use it or lose it’ list (also to come)
– craft supplies: don’t really have any. I have brown paper for wrapping presents, and a few sheets of white and yellow tissue (the white is reused from a brand that wraps stuff I buy). I have three types of ribbons (leftover from weddings I did) to make florist style bows on the brown paper. I have coloured pencils (since I was 12 I think I’ve had those, how much I wanted that 72 set of Derwent Water Colours). But I don’t have any scrapbooking decorative stuff or the like.
– office supplies: worked hard to thin out the biros I don’t like (yes, I WANT people to ‘take’ my pen when I loan it sometimes….!)
– toys and games: I move most puzzles on as I do them. I have two lingering – one a gift from my mother for Christmas (from France) and one I never did that I got from freecycle. Might need to rehome both of those!
– books: again, anything that’s not a library book, I try to rehome once read. Mum gave me a book she’d read, Leon and Louise, not sure where that’s got to. And when I’m finished the one I’m reading, I’ll need to pass it on to someone, or donate it somewhere. And I really must decided on the few books on my bedhead – the one about Israel is tiresome reading, and I may never crack it!
– papers left over from school: I have a container for ‘school’ and one for ‘uni’. The school one is not 100% closing, cause I have an old uniform and a jumper passed from all my siblings to my God daughter, and I want to keep it (as it’s still 100% usable!). So I need to thin out that box. The uni box is rather emptier since I moved my 3 travel journals downstairs, to somewhere more accessible when I want to show someone something. My thesis paperwork is now all stored in the garage as I never want to access it regularly, but I feel it’s important to keep proof of such a major amount of work.
– technical books: I always sold my textbooks from semester to semester to fund the next batch. I also inherited some from a friend. Pleased to say, I have NO reference books for my field. Perhaps this isn’t ideal, but it is what it is!
– career related magazines: don’t have any, but I am fighting my professional organisation to STOP sending me them monthly, as they just end up in the recycling (or making me feel guilty!)
– electronic this and that: I have a drawer in my kitchen for there – charges for AA batteries and Li Ion battery, plus some international adaptors, earphones. I also have 2 HDD (at the moment, one I bought last week). I work INCREDIBLY hard to have a minimal amount of electronics.
– garage items: I have one length of wood leftover from a project, and a caulking gun with silicon. Both of them bother me, as they aren’t in active service, however it’s rather minimal.
– outgrown clothes and toys: I don’t grow out of stuff anymore! And I’ve mentioned toys above
– art supplies: just the Derwents, above, really!
– things girls collect: I have some Indian bangles that I seldom wear (they make too much noise), so they could go. And too many hair clips (and no hair now), so they are in the ‘declutter box’ now.
– unwanted gifts: as soon as I open them, I tend to know. So the vanilla scented stuff gets passed straight onto my mother (two items recently!). But mostly, I get cheap jewelry and wine, both of which I use. Anything that doesn’t suit me, I move on – such as tolitieries not to my taste, books that are… inconsiderate. There is a travel souvenir from a friend that’s just collecting dust, it may move on v v soon!
– impulse purchases I am the QUEEN of returns (and store’s policies). Anything that doesn’t suit/fit goes back for a full refund (even unopened groceries)
THINGS TO DECLUTTER – the strike through items have found new homes since I drafted this! 😀
– hair clips (still in packaging)
– excess bubble wrap: why does no one want this when I put it on freecycle?
– two lamp shades: can’t be returned as they were part of a set
– 4 wine bottle gift bags: I never give wine, but I get a fair bit!
– broken (cheap) jewelry: not sure if the bin is the best way, or if there’s hope of fixing them
– travel souvenir from a colleague