Seven Things Week 2

IN

7	knitting pattern books	gift	from a decluttering friend
3	Fowlers jars	Buy Nothing Community
2	pair shoes	opshop
3	pairs trousers	opshop
2	tops	opshop
1	sewing pattern	opshop
1	needle case	gift
1	chair	Buy Nothing Community
20

OUT

38	miniature toiletries	donation to Zonta for women's shelter kits
8	dresses	donation to Zonta pre-loved ashion sale
2	pairs trousers	donation to Zonta pre-loved ashion sale
3	tops	donation to Zonta pre-loved ashion sale
2	jackets	donation to Zonta pre-loved ashion sale
1	skirt	donation to Zonta pre-loved ashion sale
1	pair of chopsticks	opshop
23	paper flowers	opshop
1	set of cardboard drawers	Buy Nothing Community
1	Christmas themed glass bottle stopper	Buy Nothing Community	Christmas themed gift.  We hosted last Christmas and used little of our Christmas themed serving dishes etc.  I got rid of most of them in January.  It was an easy declutter. Things designed to be used once a year really don’t need to be in our home, particularly when they are duplicates.  We have large serving platters and bowls that are great at ANY time of year.
20	balls of yarn	gift	A group of local knitters make twiddle muffs for nursing homes.  Best use of novelty yarn ever.
1	Tupperware container	opshop
4	Moccona jars	Buy Nothing Community
1	set of knick knack drawers	Buy Nothing Community
7	reusable coffee cups	Buy Nothing Community
1	bottle of lens cleaner	Buy Nothing Community
1	lipstick holder	opshop
1	bathmat	bin	it lost its non-slip backing and caused a fall in the bathroom
1	pair elastic sock garters	bin	the elastic perished
1	souvenir coffee mug	opshop	just say no to freebie mugs!
8	half pint beer glasses	Buy Nothing Community	we don’t drink a lot of beer
1	passata jar	bin	the ceramic floor claimed another victim
1	piece of fabric	gift	used for the cover of a wheat bag
1	cot sheet	gift	used for the innards of 2 wheat bags
1	length of cotton tape	gift	used for the ties on a wheat bag
5	press studs	gift	used on cover of a wheat bag
1	audio lead	bin	dead
5	skeins of yarn	gift
2	skeins of yarn	sold
16	balls of yarn	sold
1	yarn butler	gift
3	bobbin holders	Buy Nothing Community
1	embroidery thread box	Buy Nothing Community
4	books	Buy Nothing Community
1	dog harness	Buy Nothing Community
1	dog lead	Buy Nothing Community
170

I was on a roll this week.  As I tidied away household items, I evaluated them.  The most useful question this week was "Do we use this?"  If the answer was no, then it was an easy decision to get rid of the item.  

It was also the annual destash day at Knitting Guild.  I bought nothing.  I deliberately took no money and I really wasn't interested in bringing yarn home and trust me, there was some really great yarn there at very good prices.

I wasn't as successful at resisting the siren call of opshop shoes and clothes but when I find black trousers that fit, new with tags, for $4.50, I am only human.

I'm away for work a lot in the next two weeks, so there will be a slow down.

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT

2	wheat bags	gift	made for a colleague to fit his lower back
1	wheat bag cover	gift
3	pairs of undies taken in		Cheap ASOS undies (I should know better), too big and too costly to return.

NETT OUT 150 

Seven Things Week 1

IN

#	item	acquisition method	notes
1	Foxtel magazine	subscription	This prompted me to ring and have it removed from our subscription. We rarely consult it and it comes in a plastic bag.
1	sporran	Buy Nothing Community	TOF loves his kilt and is starting to wear it to work.  This vintage sporran will be perfect to hold his hanky, wallet and phone.
1	tea infuser	Buy Nothing Community	When the stockpile of teabags runs out, I will be using tea leaves again.  An infuser was on my acquisition watch list, so I was very grateful to receive this from our Buy Nothing Community.
1	1 cake tin	The Green Shed
1	1 door mat	The Green Shed	for the Caravan
1	Tupperware water botthle	The Green Shed	not strictly necessary but we all have our weaknesses.
6

OUT

#	item	disposal method	notes
6	teacups	Buy Nothing Community
6	saucers	Buy Nothing Community
2	side plates	Buy Nothing Community
1	teapot	Buy Nothing Community
1	vase	gift	I buy plain vases second hand when the price is right and give them with bunches of flowers.
2	yoga blocks	Buy Nothing Community
1	heatpack	bin	I kept the wheat from inside but the outer fabric was shredded, so it had to be binned
8	handsewing needles	bin	they were tiny with eyes so small that the thread was larger
5	balls of yarn	gift
9	packets of elastic	gift
1	packet of ric rac	gift
53	buttons	gift
95

NETT OUT  89    

Everything old...

Seven Things is back!

Image from Trusted Clothes.com

Way, way back when this blog was active I had a few goes at decluttering following a set of principles inspired by Earth Chick's  Seven Things Project.

There were 21 weeks in 2010/11, 6 weeks in Winter 2007 and 78 weeks 2007-2009.  All up 6,538 items were disposed of - most were donated for reuse or sale, some were recycled and some went to landfill.

Things have changed in the 7 years since I last challenged myself to remove seven things, nett, per week from my home.

My mother died in June 2011.  The sudden cessation of the challenge after 21 weeks coincided with increased caring responsibility.  There wasn't the time or the bandwidth in her last two months and then there was the family home to empty.  I remember being able to clear the house swiftly and it is at least partly due to the practice I had gained in the challenge.

TOF and I bought a house two years later.  Merging two houses into one meant much discussion was had about which of the two of everything we should keep.  Unlike other couples of our age we upsized so while we did divest ourselves of possessions we didn't have to be very ruthless - well he didn't - I was the one who did most of the packing and actual physical moving.

In December 2015 we married and acquired more things.

Four years ago I was diagnosed with a chronic illness.  My energy levels wax and wane and a flare late last year left me off work for the first quarter of this year.  I no longer have the energy to deal with all of our possessions and I resent the time it takes to maintain it all.  So I'm having another go at taking responsibility for the clutter I bring into our life and ridding us of the excess.


I've looked at lots of different decluttering methods.  There's the 10 items a day challenge and the 31 day challenge where you get rid of 1 item on day one increasing up to 31 items on day 31 and the themed challenges (there are lots of them).  I've read Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and that Swedish Death Cleaning one.  And spent endless hours watching minimalism videos on Youtube.

And wouldn't you know it, the method that suits me best is good old seven things.  It's simple, sustainable and does not require more energy than I have on any given day.  There are no set things on set days for me to rebel against and it builds in the critical thinking about possessions that is key.  I will not limit myself to only seven things.  If there are more things in a week, so be it.  If there are fewer - my bad, but that's life.  There is also no end date.  No pressure, no unrealistic goals.  Progress not perfection.

I will report in each Monday across three categories

IN - what has come into our home
OUT - what has left our home
SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT - what I've creatively transformed from materials in our home rather than discarding it.

The only rule is outgoings, minus incomings should be greater than or equal to seven things. 

In
The stuff I bring in to our home. This includes:

• stash items of ANY kind
• other forms of entertainment such as books and magazines
• clothes and accessories
• homewares 
• gifts received 

Exempt are consumables such as food and other groceries and items borrowed from the library or elsewhere (but not items borrowed from the library and copied for keeping because that is (a) illegal and (b) not in the spirit of the challenge).

Out
Items deliberately weeded from the houses. Consumables do not count. Completely worn out and non-fixable/transformable clothing, household items etc do.  I will try and repurpose before I give it away, but if clothing is still wearable I'd prefer to donate it than cut it.

Shake-it-All-About

This category is about transformation. After the first challenge I realised it is important to acknowledge the creative transformation of items already in the home. It might be as simple as the use of stash buttons on an old blouse to revamp it instead of buying a new blouse or other transformation of clothes. It might be the creation of something new for ourselves or others from stash.

Reading Challenges 2016

For the last 3 years I have participated in the Australian Women Writers Challenge.

This year I will continue participation and am committing to Franklin level.  I will be reading 10 books by Australian women writers.  Should be easily achieved as I've managed 21 in the last two years.

Now that the wedding is out of the way and all of the organisation and creation that went with it, I'd like to do more reading.  To this end, I'm doing not one, but 4 reading challenges this year.

On Goodreads, I've committed to reading 30 books this year; or 0.6 books a week.  Combining traditional reading with audiobooks, this should be achievable.

Then there's the Book Riot Read Harder 2016 Challenge and the Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge.  Both of these challenge the reader to go beyond their usual genre or preferred reading habits, and read a bit more diversely.

I've created a not very pretty bingo card with mashes the challenges up.  And I fully intend double, triple or quadruple dipping.  As long as I read 30 books this year, 10 of which are by Australian women, I'll be happy.  The rest is a bit of fun to keep me thinking.

AWW Challenge 2015 - roundup

In 2015 I committed to reading to Miles level (6 books) in the Australian Womens Writers Challenge.

21 books read - smashed it!  This was my 3rd year participating and I've have valued greatly the focus of the challenge and supporting local women authors.  To see the books I've read - check out my Goodreads AWW 2015 Shelf.

My favourite was the short story collection of Maxine Beneba Clark, Foreign Soil.

The Challenge was set up to help overcome gender bias in the reviewing of books by Australian women and encourages readers and bloggers to read and review writing by Australian women.

I am not a confident reviewer but I gave it a go for some of the books and contributed many of them to the Libraries ACT Facebook page.  

Reading time is the first to go when I get busy, preoccupied or stressed.  And while all of those things happened this year, I also had a couple of weeks away for work which gave me a heap of plane and hotel reading time.

I'll be doing the Challenge again this year.  But that's another post.