Neat And Tidy... And Some Waffle Too

Via Simply Seleta

I had heaps to do yesterday but as usual I got side tracked reading interesting things... like Minimalist Mom's Blog - A Rich Life With Less Stuff. 

I have got the decluttering thing mastered I reckon, it's just keeping what's left, tidy. I don't know about you, but that tupperware drawer of mine... grrrrr. I get the boys to do a big tidy of it once a week... and then it all falls apart from there. I swear they stand back and aim the stuff from the dishwasher to the drawer, like shooting hoops. Half the time it doesn't even close. So it's not all about the amount of stuff, it's keeping it tidy. 

Via Palatial Living

Neat and perfect kitchen shelves just kill me....

... especially Trina's... over at 'A Country Farmhouse'.

Via Young House Love

Killing me.

Via My Design Chic

Open shelves.....I love them.... especially in kitchens. Even fancy stuff looks good when it's tidy.

Via Eclektic

Via My Design Chic

Via Bathwater

Seriously lovely. 

And neat.

Oh and look!... I was neat once.... except for all the messy groceries in the bottom drawers.

I think I have inspired myself to do a bit of a tidy up today. Busy day today, starting with the early morning Guitar Ensemble run. It's always a toss up between Guitar Ensemble and Maths Extension Class. I know, he's a nerd. I have to fight him to get him out of the Maths and into the Ensemble. Guitar Ensemble is playing at Speech Night tomorrow night so he has to 'ensemble it' this morning. 

Little tacker and I hang out in Macca's early on Tuesday mornings... until his part of the school opens. I know, ex Dietitian... yeah, yeah. I have the coffee and little one does his homework grid.

Oh and in other breaking news. Nigella (pet bearded dragon lizard.. for new readers...partner of Brian, other lizard) had 5 more eggs... but they all shrivelled up and died... and we couldn't blame Origin this time... for cutting off the heat lamp power. Nature is cruel sometimes. 

Speaking of Origin...they coughed up the goods... big time. Waived $800 off my year's electricity bill... as compensation for momentarily destroying my life when they cut my power off the other week. Must have been all those #epicfailorigin tweets I sent out, that all my twitter friends retweeted to all their friends. I'm afraid I sent out another one again last week, as despite being compensated, they are still sending out 'unauthorised use' letters to me saying that I don't live where I live and if I don't contact them, they are going to cut off my power!!!! It's rocket science you know.

Look at me, waffling like there is no tomorrow. Gotta go.

Happy Tuesday!

Decluttering

Image Courtesy The Red Chair Blog

I'm at that stage in my life where I am acting on that wonderful quote..."the most important things in life are not things"... and I'm decluttering my life like there is no tomorrow. I am not just decluttering things per se but simplifying every I do in my daily life... from what I eat, to how I start my day, what I wear, how I run my business.... to even our daily family routines. I am adopting a 'minimalist mindset' and I find it is very freeing and a lot less stressful. It's rubbing off on my boys too, much to my delight. They don't want for much and are very aware of how unimportant 'things' are in the big scheme of things. I don't know about you but I think boys are pretty basic. All my boys need is their family, each other, their lizards, a soccer ball and their Nintendos (only on weekends!) and they're happy.

I subscribe to a wonderful website, 'Be More With Less', a website about simplifying your life and really living. Courtney has the most wonderful informative links in her twitter stream too. I find I read some interesting link of hers every day.

Her latest blog post is an absolute beauty....."50 Ways To Leave Your Clutter".

Here is her list:

50 Ways to Leave Your Clutter

1. Empty one box from your storage space.
2. Donate one box from your storage space without looking inside.
3. Hide something.
4. Put a box near a door that you can easily place things to donate.
5. Read Joshua and Ryan’s new book for extra inspiration.
6. Designate one surface as completely clutter free.
7. Open your mail before you come in the house.
8. Don’t leave anything on your counter tops that you don’t use frequently.
9. List your books on Paperback Swap. (Note from A-M: try GIVIT here in Australia).
10. Sell your gold.
11. Give meaningless jewellery away.
12. Choose one winter hat. Donate the rest of them to a homeless shelter.
13. If there is exercise equipment you haven’t used in 90 days, use it or list it on Freecycle (Note from A-M: try GIVIT here in Australia).
14. Give pots and pans away that you never use, even if they are part of a set.
15. Check out Project 333 and dress with less.
16. Stop comparing. You don’t need everything they have.
17. Let go of sentimental items.
18. Stop shopping sales.
19. Opt out of junk mail.
20. Don’t buy something you don’t want to get something free that you don’t need. (aka stay away from the make-up counters)
21. Figure out where to donate your stuff.
22. Give away holiday decorations that you don’t use this year. Next year, you won’t remember what you gave away.
23. Conquer your junk drawer.
24. Have one last yard sale.
25. Hire a truck to pick up whatever doesn’t sell at the yard sell.
26. If you don’t have a CD player, get rid of your CDs.
27. If you get rid of your CDs, you can dump your cassette tapes too. 
28. Don’t worry about keeping things just in case. 
29. Copy your favorite recipes from cookbooks and get rid of the books.
30. Don’t buy stuff to store your stuff.
31. Hang with like minded people. 
32. Stop getting organized.
33. Set gift giving expectations with friends and family.
34. Decide what you will take with you when you leave. 
35. Stop attaching stuff to the people that gave it to you.
36. Get ready to move to a much smaller space.
37. Live on a boat.
38. Clean off the outside of your refrigerator.
39. Just use one.
40. Leave your kitchen cabinet doors open for 48 hours.
41. Spend time with people who don’t have enough.
42. Don’t send lengthy email messages.
43. Pick up an object and ask these questions. “Do I use this?” “Do I love this?” If the answer is no, let it go.
44. Start a volunteer project with your gift giving friends and agree that your gift to each other and the world this holiday season will be love and time.
45. Enjoy your newfound time and space.
46. Clear your work space of anything you aren’t using that day.
47. Instead of adding a task to your to do list, just do it.
48. If it’s broken, fix it.
49. Remember, if you aren’t happy being clutter free, you can buy everything back.
50. Put people before stuff. Every time.

If you head to Courtney's site HERE, she has links in her list to previous posts she has done on each topic. Some of the organisations she links to may not be too relevant for those of us in this hemisphere but in terms of donating to an organisation, I so recommend GIVIT ... HERE. I did a post on GIVIT a while back HERE.

Do you have any favourite decluttering tips you'd like to share with each other? I like Courtney's last point, 'people before stuff'. We're all out there working hard to buy stuff we don't need, when we have everything we need right now.

Speaking of decluttering, I am unpacking 3 pallets of lights at my shed this morning and then 'decluttering' them.... that means, if you've bought them, you should get them tomorrow or the next day! Hooray, at last!

Have a great day! I'm going to start with a good breakfast!