30 Day Wellness Challenge Days 9 to 13: 5 Day Mini Decluttering Goal

I am a firm believer in the adage "Messy Home, Messy Mind."  Yet still, there have been many times when I find decluttering to be emotionally unsettling.  I have written about the mini 5 Day Decluttering Challenge here,  where on Day 1, you discard one thing, on the second day, 2 things and so on.  At the end of the 5 days, 15 things will have been decluttered.  It is a relatively simple and easy way to get the ball rolling when it comes to tidying up the home and achieving peace of mind.  See you on the flip side!

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H & M Clothes Donation Recycling Campaign #closetheloop

I was so pleased to see posters at my local mall announcing H & M's clothing donation campaign.  I figured it was a good incentive for me to declutter my closet.  Starting on the 23rd of May and running until the 28th, you can drop off a bag of clothing in any condition and receive a $10 H & M voucher or coupon.  Brilliant!  So far, I have dropped off 2 bags.  The first bag was easy and the second bag was a little harder.  It's been pouring rain for hours today so I didn't make another donation. Also, it has gotten progressively harder to put together another bag.  After hours of staring at my closet, putting something on the donate pile, changing my mind and taking it off, I needed a break.  I do think it is important to make decluttering fun and not overwhelming, so I called a halt when I felt myself getting really bogged down.  A word of warning here.  I made the mistake of making my first donation at the bin located inside the H & M store.  I had asked an employee where the bins were and was directed to a small bin beside the cash register.  There was a pile of forms for a giveaway and I assumed that the giveaway was the only incentive on offer to make a donation.  The 2 employees at the cash didn't give me any vouchers or attempted to tell me about the vouchers.  Then, I went out into the mall and, much to my chagrin, there was a huge booth manned by attendants giving out coupons for donations!  I asked one of the attendants why coupons weren't being given out in the store but the only explanation I was given was that she wasn't "technically" an H & M employee so couldn't answer my question and that possibly the "real" employees didn't know about the H & M campaign (???).  If you would like a coupon, make sure you make your donation at a drop-off point that is actually giving out the coupons.  All that aside, quite unwittingly, I am well on my way to using Marie Kondo's method of decluttering my closet espoused in her book, "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up," which involves going through every single item in your closet and making a decision on it.  And that, surely, is a good thing.

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Decluttering and Clear Surfaces

As I continue to stoically and steadfastly declutter and organize my home, one thing I have discovered that really helps to keep me motivated is to have at least one clear surface in the home.  The above is what I see when I walk through the door.  For some reason, seeing that surface with nothing on it except what is necessary puts me in a good mood.  Even if every other surface in the home is covered in junk, knowing that I have managed to keep one surface clear keeps me motivated to continue on my decluttering journey.  Baby steps, people, baby steps.  If you are struggling to maintain some sort of order amidst the chaos in your home, try keeping at least one surface clear.  Let me know if this tip is working for you!

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Being Emotionally Ready For Decluttering

I have tried many, many methods of decluttering espoused by various "experts". Discarding one item a day, playing my version of the minimizing game where you discard one item on the first day, then two on the second day and so on.  And while they all have their merits,  a lot of these organizing and decluttering experts assume that, by the time you discover their method(s), you are ready to jump right into decluttering and that, once done, you never have to do it again.  They don't really cover the emotional springboard required before the whirlwind of decluttering commences.  Based on my own experience,  I have found that I have to be emotionally ready to do it.  Declutter my childhood teddy bear?  No way!  To be honest, I have gotten rid of a couple things that I regret parting with.  At the time, I felt like I "had" to get rid of it as it was taking up space and wasn't being used.  But I loved it and thought it lovely.  I think I fell into the trap of playing a numbers game and worried that, if I didn't constantly declutter, I was being a bad declutterer and that, at any minute, the declutter/minimalism police was going to show up at my door.  Afterwards, I felt a simmering resentment inside of me and, for a long time, thought about what I had discarded (hoarders, stop reading if this is causing you palpitations!).  No, I wasn't prostrate with grief and lived to tell the tale but, looking back, I know now that the only person I am accountable to in my decluttering efforts is myself (and to some degree, the people I live with).  If I want to keep my childhood teddy bear, I will!  And placing it in a tree in a forest, as some suggest, or placing a bag over its head doesn't really alleviate the sadness if you feel you are being forced to do it.  In fact, if you do have a strong emotional attachment to something, being forced to do something you don't want to do, can make you cling on even more.  So, I think that before starting your decluttering efforts, ask yourself if you are truly ready?

Once you have completed your decluttering campaign, you may think that you never have to do it again.  Wrong!  Unless you are a hardcore minimalist, life changes and you change.  One day, you might look at that thing that you looked at a million times and thought you could never part with and suddenly decide that its usefulness is over and you are ready to part with it.  And that's fine.  You haven't failed.  Our homes should move and flow with our lives and be a true reflection of it.  

Are you in the midst of Spring Cleaning?  Any suggestions to make the process easier?

LBH Weekly Roundup: Straw Brushes and Under Cabinet Wire Drawers

In my neverending quest to streamline my life, I have converted to using a stainless steel travel mug and straw.  To be honest, I bought the mug because I just wanted the straw.  I think I switched over after I saw a video about a giant sea turtle that had a plastic straw stuck up one nostril.  The poor thing kept sneezing.  For some reason, the sneezing, which sounded just like a baby with a bad cold, and the giant dinner plate eyes really got to me.  I have been very good about taking my stainless steel paraphernalia with me wherever I go even though it is heavy and cumbersome.

The only problem that remained was "How to clean the straw?"  Gone are the days when I would sip on a plastic straw and then blindly throw it in the trash, not worrying about cleanup.  Thankfully, I got my hands on the world's longest and thinnest brush.  You can get similar brushes here.

Also, in my neverending quest to organize and streamline, I think I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in taming the horror that is the cabinet under the kitchen sink.  I finally realized that a lot of the problem lay in the fact that there are no shelves or drawers in there so everything gets thrown on top of each other.  Some sort of elevation was needed so I put in a set of wire mesh drawers.

image source via Amazon.ca

The cleaners get stacked up top.  I love the fact that the drawers slide forward allowing for ease and efficiency of movement and more importantly, no drilling or hammering required!  If you have any organizing tips, please share!

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LBH Weekly Roundup: Ole Henricksen 3 Little Wonders, Mariage Freres Tea

Time for another Weekly Roundup!  In my ongoing decluttering efforts (when will it ever end??), I decided to sort through my tea collection.  Even though I only drink one type of tea on the regular, I am gifted all sorts of tea which end up languishing in a designated cupboard in the kitchen.  I unearthed a very interesting box which I had completely forgotten about.

Mariage Freres Jasmine Mandarin tea! I opened it up, expecting the usual paper sachets and what did I see?

Oh my, cuteness overload.  If ever tea could be described as cute, wee or pretty then the above sight fits all those descriptives.  They look like a little pile of plump dumplings all ready for their hot water bath.  And their delicate scent is beyond divine.

I have been really missing my Ole Henricksen Sheer Transformation Moisturizer this week.  I don't know about you but those few moments every day that I allocate to skincare are moments that I really look forward to.  I can slow down, turn off my mind and just relax.  And yes, I know that marketing hype and packaging is all just smoke and mirrors but I am a weak human.  By chance, I found out that I had accumulated enough points with Sephora to get the Ole Henricksen 3 Little Wonders travel or introductory set.  The set consists of 7 days worth of Truth Serum, Sheer Transformation Perfecting Moisturizer, Invigorating Transformation Gel and Find Your Balance Oil Control Cleanser.  Admittedly, in the past,  I have avoided products with high concentrations of acids as I found them overly drying.  But, in my desire to get my hands on the moisturizer, I was willing to try out the cleanser and gel, both of which contain AHA's (glycolic and lactic acids).  I do like the fact that the box clearly outlines the steps involved in the 7 day regimen, breaking it down into an am and pm routine.  I am about half way through and my face hasn't fallen off my head yet.  Do you have a skincare regimen?  Or, like me, have you just woken up to the fact that youth is no longer your ally and you had better take action right sharpish?  

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LBH Weekly Roundup: Teeny Tiny Mini 5 Day Decluttering Challenge

Happy New Year!  Yes, I know it is almost the end of January but January isn't over yet so I think I can still wish everyone a Happy New Year?!  This is a different Weekly Roundup than usual.  My health took a turn for the worse and my days are spent in constant, 24/7 pain management.  Housekeeping, never a thrill in the first place, became an onerous, long drawn out process.  Monsieur, bless him, has really stepped up to the plate and is like a man on fire.   He has admitted in the past that he was oblivous to clutter and mess but now demonstrates a heretofore unknown discipline and rigour when it comes to keeping the home tidy and organized.  I still wanted to contribute and help as much as I was able and realized that it was imperative that a bit of decluttering needed to happen just to keep the home manageable.  Now I have tried various methods in the past but doing a 30 day decluttering challenge or even a 10 day challenge has always intimidated me.  If you don't know what a 30 day challenge is, on the first day you declutter one item, the second day 2 items and so on and so forth.  It tends to get more difficult around the 15 day mark (at least it does for me).  So I thought I would start with just a teeny tiny challenge, a 5 day challenge. Here is what I decluttered.

A couple of t shirts as I have great difficulty these days in pulling tops over my head, an unused baking sheet and a decorative plate.

I was really shocked at the amount of expired vitamins and supplements lurking in the kitchen cabinets.  What a waste of money!

Two pumpkin scented candles and a couple of pairs of holey socks.

This last one, an old unopened jar of Giorgio body cream made me do a double take.  If you take a close look, you will see that the liquid has completely separated away from the semi-solids.  

It is like the body care equivalent of not so freshly churned butter with a hard waxy lump floating in a sea of rancid oil.  Ewww!! Imagine slathering this stuff over your body.

So, at the end of 5 days, I had decluttered 15 items.  And when I say decluttered, I mean donated and recycled where possible.  It wasn't hard or intimidating at all.  And that is the point, to make it so easy that you can't help but gain a "win" and the confidence to keep going.  I might try another 5 day mini challenge or even do a series of them.  Please comment below if you would like to join in or have any tips on decluttering!

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