All posts filed under: decluttering

Giving Presence – Have I Gone Too Far?

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There’s nothing I love more than being on holiday. It doesn’t have to be a long holiday, or even a holiday to anywhere fancy. As long as I’m not at home facing the endless list of things that need to be done, then life is good. Which is why I think ‘giving the gift of an experience’ is a concept I’ve embraced. OK, maybe we’ve gone passed embracing and are now in a serious, long-term relationship. You see, last year the experiences I gave the kids for their birthdays were fun days out doing something they each loved. Miss 10 went horse-riding, Miss 8 went skiing and Mr 8 had a not-so-great day out at the Monster Slide festival. This year, I may just have taken it to a whole new level by using the idea of ‘giving presence’ as an excuse for a holiday (or two). I didn’t see anything wrong with this approach until a well-meaning friend pointed out that I might be setting the bar a bit high – creating an expectation that …

14 Ways to Make Your Trash Someone Else’s Treasure

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I’d love to be able to tell you that I’m on day 30 of my 100 Day Declutter and that it was all going swimmingly. Truth is by Day 7 I’d already given up. While it was a nice idea – and I’d prepared a huge list of things to declutter in advance – the reality of doing a little every day just didn’t work for me. I’m always one to look for silver linings. I didn’t achieve what I set out to do, but in the process I did put together a list of great ways to turn your trash into someone else’s treasure. Work Clothes: Dress for Success help women get back into the workforce so they can be financially independent. They accept good quality business clothing, shoes, handbags and jewellery that would be suitable for someone to wear to a job interview. They have branches in Northland, Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Wellington and Christchurch and lots of convenient drop off points. All Types of Clothing: The Clothing Collective is a second …

The 100 Day Declutter

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A while back I embarked on a major declutter and enthusiastically announced I’d have this done in 30 days. That was 6 months ago. During that time I’ve hauled several carloads of stuff down to charity shops and school fairs, but it really doesn’t feel like much has changed. So I’ve decided to undertake a 100 Day Declutter – a rather ambitious task for me I admit, but by turning it into a game (of sorts) I’m hoping it’s something I’ll persevere with. Below is the list – I’ll keep adding to it as I go along. Wherever possible I’ll find a home for my stuff and in doing so hope to hunt out some worthy charities or causes that might be useful fo you, my fellow declutterers. Some will go on TradeMe for sale to help fund my first renovation project – the hallway (and yes, I’m pretty sure that’s going to take me another 100 days to complete….) and other things I’ll post on my Facebook page to see if anyone else can re-use …

The Downside of Downsizing

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One week in to my decluttering project and already the difference is noticeable. So far I’ve: Gone through all our clothes and got rid of all the kids clothes they’ve grown out of, and any clothes I had to honestly say I’d never wear again Cleared a whole 12 cubby bookshelf by getting rid of CDs, DVDs and books that were no longer of use I don’t even want to think about how much money is tied up in all that stuff. It’s been a real trip down memory lane so it feels a little ruthless and hard-hearted to discover these memories only to have to expel from the house and from my heart. Thank goodness I still have my mind. It takes a special kind of ruthlessness The rules of decluttering are a great guideline, but they don’t prepare you for all the hard decisions that need to be made. For example, I’ve got rid of all of our CDs except this one. My husband and I met at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones gig …

Downsizing for Beginners

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It seems like we spend our whole lives upsizing – bigger houses, bigger cars and bigger responsibilities – until one day we realise it’s time to downsize. Perhaps because the kids are gone, or we realise we no longer need, want or can manage that big house and all of the stuff that goes with it. But what about choosing not to upsize in the first place? There’s no denying our houses are getting bigger. The average size of a NZ house in the 1970s was just 107m2. Kids shared bedrooms and everyone shared one bathroom and one living space. Today it’s not uncommon for new houses in this part of the world to be 200-250m2 – that’s a whopping 90m2 per person. Buy stuff. Keep it. Buy more stuff. Keep that, too. Buy more space. If the size of our houses is increasing, then it follows that the amount of stuff we own is also increasing. A study in the US of 32 dual-income, middle class families highlights just how much we clutter our …