Week 1 down of the DD challenge & some garden treasures

Oh I just love how good decluttering feels.  Little effort for big rewards!  I don't know about you, but when I rid myself of the clutter it eases and declutters my mind.  Strange, but true.  This past week I've tackled my daughters bedroom and things are looking up.  I've smuggled out 2 garbage bags full of stuffed animals, books that she has out grown, a zillion pom poms, pipe cleaners, scraps of paper, stickers and other craft supplies that have seen better days, seemingly unnoticed!! I'm so sneaky but it does highlight how little our kids take notice of whats around them without too much attachment unlike some of us adults.  I haven't taken the really special things played with over and over or that have been hugged to death, I'm just certain the used craft supplies and bits of paper hoarded aren't really of any use even to a desperately crafty child! 

The technique I used this past week that I love, and will put it through its paces again this week, was putting the kitchen timer on for 10 minutes, putting some music on and going my hardest for that time.  Each day I tackled a different room and put the items that didn't belong back where they did live or into the recycle, bin or op shop piles. You could just do this all week to one problem area in your home.  The kitchen, a bedroom, the garage, the car, the lounge, the linen press, the office/study or the childrens play area/bedroom will be transformed with just 10 minutes a day.  Be ruthless.  Go on, you can't take it with you.

Do you have some clutter 'hot spots'? Places that just grow stuff no matter how hard you try to keep it minimal and zen like?  It amazes me how I can NOT, no matter how I try, keep the end of the kitchen bench clear of my crap.  You need to put your keys, handbag, your latest magazine, school notices, mobile phone, a book you are reading or your knitting somewhere don't you?  I'm never going to have a sterile spotlessly clean decluttered home like you see in home beautiful.  Although, it can look like that at the start of some particularly good weeks, but it doesn't last long.  Honestly, its a waste of precious time and energy being a total slave to you house. Add a child into the equation and a husband that can walk over the same toy on the ground for days and you are seriously setting yourself up for failure if that type of perfection is high on your list.  Lower your standards just a little.  Let it go.  

I worked with a woman once who wouldn't let her kids play in their bedrooms as she didn't want them to mess them up. I'm serious.  They were show stoppers those rooms.  Perfection at its finest.  But that sort of pressure must be toxic to a person don't you think, not to mention the tension it caused the whole house, just for order.  if you are constantly picking up after little maniacs people, do it once a day, get them to help if they are old enough or do it after they have gone to bed or if you really can't cope that long, do it once at lunchtime and then at the end of the day.  While you are cleaning up the day's fun remnants, pour yourself a wine or make a cupa and put the timer on and go for it!  You may as well do a quick declutter while you are at it.  Your sanity will thank you.  Remember, there is a difference between a clean but messy house and a dirty one.  Kids need to make a mess, its in their DNA, the more you fight it the more stress and tension there will be.  Lighten up just a little.  

                                                                            This coming week I'm decluttering my facebook account.  Firstly, I want to clear the air.  I like facebook for many reasons.  It makes me feel connected to my friends, allows me to share special moments, brag items, fill in time and if I'm honest, its where I get my news content of whats happening in the world, sad but true.  I have an 'A gluttonous wife' page that I've got some likers on.  Half are people I do not know, but for what ever reason, they have decided they like what they see and have clicked on the 'like' button that has changed the world.  I am very grateful for support and have actually made 'friends' with people on there who are like minded people and feel some kind of connection.  So thank you from the bottom of my heart if you are one of them reading this .  I truly value my readers and likers and feel very blessed to be living out my hobbie in this internet space. 

What I'm talking about decluttering is my personal facebook page.  I know it isn't polite to say, but here it is my friends, the cold hard truth....I have many 'friends' on facebook as I'm sure you do too if you were silly lucky enough to start.  I have people on there that I haven't actually spoken a word to since primary school and that wasn't yesterday nor was it always a meaningful exchange.  I have 'friends' who have turned the other way to dodge saying hello in the supermarket or crossed the street in avoidance but are happy to share with me their childs precious moments or their deepest darkest feelings about something or other.  To me this is just plain weird.  So I'm sorry if I offend anyone, I really don't like hurting peoples feelings deliberately, I'm a lover not a fighter, but I am deleting non-friends on facebook and decluttering my feed.  I'm just being honest and if you are still my friend on there, you are special to me in your own way.  

Other areas I will be hitting in the house this week will be the plastics cupboard in my kitchen.  You all know what I'm talking about.  If you are one of those people who have organised caddies and glass containers, I applaud you.  I can't open the door of this cupboard without a lid or a container falling out and I'm sick to death of it!  Its time to finally throw out the lids with lost bottoms for once and for all.

So tell me dear reader, what is on your decluttering radar this week?  

If you want to start the challenge(I know its Christmas silly season but seriously, less than 10 minutes a day), its not too late!! You can read more about it here  to find out how to start.  If you really are lacking motivation, invite someone over for a cuppa...nothing like company coming to get your A into G!

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In gardening news, it was garlic and onion harvest at our house this weekend.  It makes me so happy to see the fruits of my hubbies labour come to maturity.  So motivating and rewarding to be plaiting up your own garlic and onions let me tell you. It just gets my cooking juices flowing.  I can feel a garlic pizza and some caramelised onion jam coming on!!

Ciao, Jan